FOI 0127-2026/27- Road traffic collision

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request information on road traffic collision and driving offence data for the following specific date ranges from North Yorkshire Police. 

Please provide the following data for the periods listed below: 

• 4th - 14th July 2013
• 4th - 14th July 2014
• 6th - 16th July 2017
• 6th - 16th July 2018
• 8th - 19th December 2021
• 8th - 19th  December2022

Q1. Daily Incident Volumes 

For each day within the above date ranges, please provide: 

• Total number of recorded road traffic collisions resulting in injury or fatality

Breakdown of collisions by severity: 

• Fatal
• Serious injury
• Minor injury
• The time of day of the breakdown was recorded

Q2. Driving Offences 

For each day within the above date ranges, please provide the number of recorded offences for:  

• Drink driving (arrests/charges)
• Drug driving
• Dangerous driving
• Driving without insurance

Q3. Victim / Road User Breakdown 

For each day within the above date ranges, please provide collision totals broken down by road user type:  

• Pedestrian
• Cyclist
• Motorcyclist
• Vehicle occupants
• Van or commercial vehicle occupant

Q4. Location Type 

For each period, where recorded, please provide a breakdown of collisions by: 

• Residential roads
• Main roads / A-Roads
• Motorways
• Urban vs rural classification

Response:

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information 

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.  

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.   

Decision 

I have today decided to disclose the following information to you. 

I am exempting the specific dates and instead provided the data broken down by calendar year pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please see the exemption explanation below. 

Please note due to recording methods we are unable to provide data relating to collisions prior to July 2018. 

Q1. Please see the table below showing the number of RTC's that resulted in injury or fatality recorded within the specified timeframes, broken down by calendar year and injury severity. 

	Injury severity
Calendar Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	None	Total
2018	2	19	49	2	66
2021	1	8	35	0	39
2022	0	8	36	0	44
Total	3	35	120	2	149

*Distinct count on occurrence number, meaning, duplicated occurrences due to numerous injuries are excluded. 

Q2. Please see the table below showing the number of arrests for drink/drug driving, dangerous driving, and driving without insurance offences for the requested dates, broken down by calendar year and offence. 

	Driving Offence type
Calendar Year	Alcohol related	Dangerous driving	Driving without insurance	Drug related	Total
2013	36	3	4	1	44
2014	32	2	6	2	42
2017	30	3	11	8	52
2018	39	8	8	10	65
2021	34	8	9	20	71
2022	41	4	9	19	73
Total	212	28	47	60	347

 **Normal count: occurrence numbers may duplicate due to various (relevant) arrest reasons per arrest. 

*By relevant, it means related to alcohol/drugs, dangerous driving, driving without insurance. 

Q2. Please see the table below showing the number of charges for drink/drug driving, dangerous driving, and driving without insurance offences for the requested dates broken down by calendar year and offence. 

	Driving Offence type
Calendar Year	Alcohol related	Dangerous driving	Driving without insurance	Drug related	Total
2013	29	2	9	0	40
2014	24	2	10	2	38
2017	22	1	8	5	36
2018	27	5	9	5	46
2021	28	4	10	11	53
2022	28	2	13	14	57
Total	158	16	59	37	270

 *Normal count: occurrence numbers may duplicate due to various (relevant) charges per occurrence 

 Q3. Of those in Q1, please see the table below showing the breakdown by casualty classification description. 

	Casualty Class Description
Calendar Year	Driver/rider	Vehicle/pillion passenger	Pedestrian	Total
2018	69	28	6	103
2021	36	17	9	62
2022	34	10	12	56
Total	139	55	27	221

 *Normal count used to count each casualty per occurrence. 

 Q4. Of those in Q1, please see the table below showing the breakdown by location. I am exempting the yearly breakdown pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please see the exemption explanation below. 

Road	Total
Not recorded	4
A0	1
A1036	3
A1041	1
A1079	1
A1237	1
A165	2
A167	2
A170	3
A171	2
A19	10
A59	6
A6055	1
A6069	1
A61	5
A64	4
A65	2
A66	1
A661	2
A684	1
A687	1
AM1	3
AM61	1
B1222	1
B1223	1
B1224	4
B1227	1
B1228	2
B1248	1
B1249	2
B1257	1
B1261	1
B1363	2
B1364	1
B1448	1
B6161	1
B6265	3
B6479	1
B6480	1
C	1
UNC	66
Total	149

 *Distinct count of occurrence numbers. An occurrence duplicated due to i.e. multiple injured persons, will be counted once. 

Q4. Of those in Q1, please see the table below showing the further breakdown by urban vs rural classification. 

	Ward Type
Calendar Year	Not recorded	Rural	Urban	Total
2018	8	44	14	66
2021	2	23	14	39
2022	43	0	1	44
Total	53	67	29	149

Exemption Explanation 

Section 40 – Personal Information 

Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject. 

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies. 

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle; in that processing of personal data must be lawful and fair (DPA 2018 35(1), EUGDPR Article 5(1)). 

This exemption applies because the right given under the FOI Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure. 

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 & EU General Data Protection Regulations, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned.   

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights 

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to your request. 

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.