Road Traffic Accidents (436A/23)
Request
Please can you tell me how many drivers in the below age groups have been involved in a car crash in the past five calendar years (1st Jan 2017- 31st Dec 2022)?
– 70-79 years old
– 80-89 years old
– 90-99 years old
– 100-109 years old
A crash could include, but is not limited to, collision with other vehicle(s), single vehicle crash, collision with pedestrians/cyclists etc. I do not need the type of crash to be distinguished in the information you provide.
For each age group, please divide the information by the number of crashes resulting in minor injuries, severe injuries, and death – and make this clear in the information provided. These can be injuries or deaths occurring to the driver or to another motorist/person.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). In relation to 2017 data the records are not held electronically, therefore a manual search would need to be conducted in order to locate and retrieve this information, this search would exceed the FOI time limit.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.