New figures have revealed there were fewer road casualties in Oxfordshire last year despite a recent spate of four fatal crashes in the space of a fortnight.

Provisional figures from the Department for Transport suggest there were 1,110 road casualties in Oxfordshire in 2023.

This is a six per cent fall from 1,186 the year before and it was also a decrease from 2,201 in 2014, which saw the most injuries in the last 10 years.

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Oxford Mail: Emergency services at the crash on the A415 in Abingdon.Emergency services at the crash on the A415 in Abingdon. (Image: Newsquest)

In Oxfordshire, 301 people were seriously injured on the roads last year, 22 of whom died whereas in 2022, road accidents caused the death of 24 people in the area.

A total of 1,645 road users were killed in crashes in 2023 which is a decline of four per cent from the 1,711 in 2022.

Despite the drop off last year, there has been an alarming series of fatal crashes in the county in the past fortnight.

Four men have died in road collisions across the county with tributes pouring in for the victims.

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A man in his 20s, named locally as Len, died on Gravel Hill in Henley after his Audi A3 car came to rest on its roof following a collision that involved no other vehicles on Tuesday, May 21 at around 11.10pm.

The following week, motorcyclist Jeffrey Williams, aged 57 from Bicester, died at the junction of Middleton Stoney Road and Empire Road in the town following a crash with a van on Monday, May 27, morning.

Just the day after, an 85-year-old man, who has not been named, died in hospital after being a passenger involved in a four-car crash on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 22.

And Thames Valley Police confirmed a 37-year-old man also died outside the Greyhound pub in Besselsleigh after being struck by a purple Ford Fiesta and black Honda FR-V at around 10pm on Wednesday.

A 60-year-old man from Coventry has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.

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Oxford Mail: A picture left at the scene on Gravel Hill in Henley-on-Thames.A picture left at the scene on Gravel Hill in Henley-on-Thames. (Image: Newsquest)

Nick Simmons, chief executive of RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, said traffic collisions cause “unacceptable loss of life and extreme suffering”.

“The ripple effect goes far beyond the statistics; it devastates families and shatters communities,” he added.

“We need to see collective action and commitment from everyone to deliver a significant reduction in road deaths and serious injuries and to create safer streets for all.”

Across Britain, a total of 132,063 road casualties were recorded in 2023 which was down three per cent from the year before.

Most of these were in London, with 26,138, while the North East saw the fewest, with 4,018 while there were 407 pedestrians killed on Britain’s roads in 2023.

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