Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many pedestrians were involved in road traffic accidents while using a mobile phone in the last year for which figures are available.

The department does not collect data specifically on mobile phone use for pedestrians involved in road accidents. The department collects data on personal injury road accidents reported to the police, including contributory factors which the police select when they attend the scene. This does not assign blame for the accident but gives an indication of factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident.

In 2017, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 2,490 road accidents involving pedestrians where the contributory factor of ‘Pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ was allocated to an injured or killed pedestrian, and 35 where this factor was allocated to an uninjured pedestrian in Great Britain.

This contributory factor includes cases where the pedestrian either behaved in a negligent or thoughtless manner or was in a hurry and, therefore, behaved in an unsafe manner. It also includes cases where a pedestrian was distracted (e.g. using a mobile phone).

Statistics on the number of accidents involving pedestrians by contributory factor assigned to pedestrians are available in table RAS50004: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743098/ras50004.ods.