Overall reported road accident casualties are down 8 percent, and those involving a fatality or serious injury are down 9 percent, of which the fatalities only were down 13 percent in the 12 months up to the end of March 2009 compared to the same period up to the end of March 2008.

Over the 12 month period up to the end of March 2009 however, overall road traffic did decline by 2 percent compared with the 12 months prior to that.

Pedestrian accidents showed a drop of 8 percent in overall casualties, and also of 8 percent in those were someone was killed or seriously injured (KSI) in an accident.

Motorcycle accidents showed a drop of 9 percent in overall casualties, and a drop of 11 percent in KSI accidents, KSI cycle accidents showed a 2 percent drop over the same period.

Car accidents showed a fall of 10 percent casualties overall, with KSI incidents down 9 percent in the 12 month to the end of March comparison period.

Child casualties over the period were down 8 percent with KSI accidents involving children down 9 percent.

The figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) show that the target for 2010 of reducing road accidents in which people are killed or seriously injured (KSI) by 40 percent compared with the average for the period 1994 to 1998 is being surpassed at 42 percent for the 12 month period up to the end of March 2009.