Hiding in plain sight – The UK’s rising accident crisis

Matilda Smith | 20th April 2026 | Comment

Approximately 23,000 people lost their lives to preventable accidents in 2023 (Photo by Graeme Robertson/Getty Images)

For too long, preventable accidents have been viewed as an afterthought, but more should be done to ensure they do not occur in the first place, writes Matilda Smith

Accidents kill as many people as a full capacity crowd at London’s 02 Arena - and send more than the entire population of Devon to hospital every year. They cost the NHS over 5 million bed days and at least £6 billion in direct treatment costs alone, while the wider economy takes an additional hit of £6 billion in lost working days, not including the impact on the benefits bill of supporting people unable to work as a result. Human suffering, economic costs and over-stretched health services are the price the UK pays for failing to get to grips with this public health crisis – a price that is getting higher as accident rates rise. Across the UK, tens of thousands of people lose their lives and hundreds of thousands are admitted to hospital each year due to preventable accidents. Falls, accidental poisonings, and road traffic collisions are just some of the tragic and widespread causes of accidental death and serious injury happening across every area of people’s lives – at home, at wor...

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