TfL publishes latest bus safety statistics

Between the months of July and September, 1491 people were injured in incidents involving buses, compared with 1506 in quarter 2 (April to June). This means that the casualty rate remains low and has fallen slightly, from 2.6 to 2.5 injuries per million passenger journeys, compared to the previous period. Over the same period there were around 600 million journeys on the Capital's bus network and London buses travelled more than 100 million kilometres in passenger service.

Eighty-two per cent of the injuries were classified as 'minor', and of those 84 per cent of people were treated at the scene of the incident and did not require hospital treatment.

Mike Weston, TfL's Director of Buses, said:

'We are determined to reduce the number of people who are injured on the bus network. We are taking a range of actions, including investing in new safety technology. We have also created bespoke training that is being delivered to all of the 24,500 bus drivers in the Capital, to keep both bus passengers and vulnerable road users safe.'

TfL continues to invest in the most stringent bus driver training in the UK and a wide range of initiatives to further improve safety on the bus network, including:

• Trialling Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) technology designed to reduce speeds and increase vehicle safety by ensuring that vehicles can't exceed speed If the trial is successful this technology could be rolled out across the bus fleet.
• Introducing CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System) to all bus operators from early next year. This will provide bus companies employees with an additional means of raising safety concerns, complementing the proven methods for reporting and investigating incidents that are already in place.
• Maintaining the most rigorous training regime for bus drivers in the UK. This includes training to identify avoidable accidents and understanding how best practice can prevent these.
• Delivering an additional course called "In the Zone" to all 24,500 bus drivers in the Capital to heighten their awareness of vulnerable road users, particularly cyclists and pedestrians.
• Learning from serious collision investigations and sharing safety information with all bus operators so the network can be continually improved.

TfL began publishing bus safety statistics on its website in June last year, as part of a commitment to further improving transparency for customers and stakeholders. Initially, details of incidents resulting in a fatality or injury requiring hospital attendance were published. Earlier this year, TfL extended this to publication of all incidents resulting in any form of injury.

Bus safety data is broken down by borough, bus operator and bus route - and gives details of the injured person's age and gender, the nature of the incident and type of road user involved (for example, bus passenger, bus driver, pedestrian, cyclist).

TfL is committed to syndicating open data to third parties and to engaging developers to deliver and innovate using open data. Over 6,000 developers have registered for our open data, consisting of around 360 feeds and APIs (Application Programming Interface) focused on enabling provision of high-quality travel applications, tools and services. Developers have created hundreds of applications, reaching millions of active users.

Notes to Editors:

1. There are 8,900 buses in the Capital's fleet and around 6.5 million bus journeys are made every day across 700 different bus routes.
2. Along with earlier data, detailed bus safety data for July to September 2015 is available at: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/buses#on-this-page-1
3. The data is not considered to offer a reliable means of comparing individual bus routes or bus operating companies in relation to safety; this is because key factors such as frequency, traffic volumes and bus types used vary between routes and operators.