When a police officer attends or receives notification of a road traffic collision in which someone was injured, they are required to collect a detailed set of data on the collision (which is referred to as “Stats19”). These data are then sent to both the Department for Transport and the local highways authority where the collision took place for analysis.
In the North East, the Traffic and Accident Data Unit (TADU), based at Gateshead Council, works closely with the different police forces in the region to make this data available for detailed analysis by local highways authorities.
The numbers of people who suffer slight injuries in road traffic collisions is falling across all local authority areas. Lower volumes of traffic in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic could have contributed to lower collision numbers and lower numbers of injuries.