Proportion of road traffic casualties in Jersey higher than Great Britain, new report shows

Deputy Andy Jehan says that Jersey's government will invest to improve safety after a series of recent road traffic incidents, including a fatality on La Route Des Quennevais in February following a two-car collision. Credit: ITV Channel

Jersey has a higher proportion of road traffic casualties than mainland Great Britain, other British Islands and many European countries.

That is according to a new government report, the Road Traffic Collision and Casualty Update, which shows the States of Jersey Police responded to 932 collisions on the island's roads during 2023.

Of those, 214 casualties were recorded with nearly a quarter killed or seriously injured.

Road safety programmes and changing road users' behaviour must be addressed to reduce that number, the report concluded.

Road traffic collision figures in 2023:

The data also found that more vulnerable road users were injured in Jersey than in Great Britain.

Vulnerable road users are mostly defined as people not in a motor vehicle such as pedestrians and cyclists but motorcycle riders are also included in the group.

Just under 40% of road casualties in 2022 were vulnerable road users with that figure rising to almost two-thirds cumulatively between 2019 and 2023.

Constable Andy Jehan says the statistics are "very disappointing" but Jersey's road network is very different from other countries.

Constable Andy Jehan: "I'd encourage motorists to drive sensibly on the island, it doesn't take that long to get from A to B." Credit: ITV Channel

He explains: "We have a lot of roads that don't have pavements, we have very limited cycling infrastructure.

"There's a number of pieces of work that we can do to mitigate those incidents but the road network, road conditions and people driving too fast [play a factor]."

Constable Jehan added that the Government aims to release a strategy to reduce collisions before the end of 2024.

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