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According to the Department for Transport, 1901 fatalities occurred on British roads last year - up 3% on 2010.
The number of deaths and serious injuries caused by motorists reached a staggering 25,023, a figure which is also up by 2% on the previous year.
Pedestrian casualties marked the largest increase in road-related deaths, reaching 453 in 2011 - a 12% increase on 2010. And serious injuries to cyclists went up by 16% in 2011 to 3,085.
Quite simply this is not a trend that we were hoping to see. With all the hard work of the various road safety organisations, and the corporate sector improving its road safety strategies for at-work drivers year-on-year, these are very troubling statistics indeed.
But I'll say what I've said many times in my blogs. The Government simply cannot sit back and leave it to the private sector and road safety bodies to grab the baton and run this race for them.
Try and remember the last time you saw a major road safety campaign on television, or on billboards - or anywhere, in fact. It seems to have completely dropped off the Government agenda.
Of course they occasionally come out and mute policies to give the impression that they are 'on the case' but these are often so ambiguous they know it's simply going to create a long-lasting debate that will give the impression of road safety being on the political agenda.
I appreciate that we're trying to cut the deficit. And I appreciate that harsh savings need to be made in all walks of life, and I'm certainly not going to be one that supports every other cost reduction initiative and then says, 'but leave our pot alone!'
But isn't it a false economy to cut spending on road safety if this results in KSI (Killed or seriously injured) statistics rising? From a purely commercial perspective this places a greater stretch on our emergency services and hospitals.
I also notice that fewer legal cases for motoring offences are reaching court, with a reduction of 12.6% between 2010 and 2011, when the total number for motoring offences fell from one million to 888,000.
The road safety contingency will continue to do its bit, often on very limited funds, but I genuinely feel that the Government is letting this important issue slide.
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