Bus and coach passengers least likely to be killed on London roads

Bus and coach passengers are the least at risk of being killed on the roads in London compared to all other transport modes, a TfL study has revealed.

In TfL’s 2023 Casualties in Greater London report, bus or coach occupants were shown as being least likely to be killed, with one passenger killed for every 867 million PCV occupant journeys in 2022.

Motorcyclists were found to be 15 times more likely to be killed on London’s roads in a collision in 2022, per journey, than the average for all listed transport modes. This equates to one motorcyclist killed for every 5.6 million motorcycle journeys, a fatality risk rate of 0.18 per million journeys.

Cars continued to be the vehicle type most frequently involved in a fatal collision (43 out of the 94 fatal collisions). Speeding remains one of the biggest risks to road users, with around half of the 2023 fatal collisions in London reporting speed as a contributory factor.

The report shows that when comparing 2023 data with the 2010-14 baseline, fatalities have reduced by 30% (from 136 to 95) in London compared to 7% for the rest of Great Britain (from 1,663 to 1,550), and serious injuries have decreased by 24% (from 4,734 to 3,615), compared to a 13% decrease (from 28,007 to 24,383) respectively. In total, the number of people tragically killed or seriously injured on London’s roads in both inner and outer London in 2023 fell by 6% compared to 2022, from 3,961 to 3,710. Last year was also the lowest year on record for fatalities in the capital, excluding 2021 due to travel pattern changes due to the pandemic.

There were 95 people killed on London’s roads over the studied period.