Latest statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) reveal that deaths and serious injuries on UK roads have risen, as road safety charity Brake urges the government to reintroduce casualty reduction targets.

Latest figures from the DfT show that 1,775 people were killed on UK roads during 2014, an increase of 4% on the previous year. The number of people suffering a serious injury in a road accident also increased by 5% to 22,807 and casualties of all severities rose by 6% to 194,477.

Pedestrian deaths rose by 12% to 446 and the number of cyclists suffering a serious injury increased by 8% to 3,401.

In response to the figures, road safety charity Brake is calling for ambitious casualty reduction targets that were axed in 2010 to be reintroduced.

Helen Williams a senior road accident solicitor at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “These latest figures represent an extremely worrying trend. As technology, knowledge and insight into road safety improves, you would expect to see better road safety standards and a fall in accidents and deaths on UK roads, yet deaths and serious injuries are on the rise.

“The government not only refuses to invest in improving road infrastructure that could help protect vulnerable road users but it also has its axing of casualty reduction targets to answer for.

“Any death or serious injury on UK roads is one too many, no one should be condemned to be a statistic because of a governmental obsession with austerity and scrapping so called red tape. Without proper casualty reduction targets, we fear that road deaths and injuries will continue to rise. We echo Brake’s calls to the government to reintroduce reduction targets and to properly invest in improving road safety standards for all road users.”