Road casualties are on the rise in Brighton and Hove, new figures show.

Figures from the Department of Transport show 740 casualties were reported on Brighton and Hove's roads in 2022 – up from 716 the year before.

But it was down from the 805 road casualties reported in 2019, before the pandemic.

The RAC Foundation said the increase in casualties last year is a reminder that more work needs to be done to improve road safety.

The data also shows more people were killed in the city’s roads with four deaths last year.

In 2021, two road deaths were reported.

Across Great Britain, 1,711 people were killed on roads. It marked a 10 per cent jump from the 2021 but was down slightly from 1,752 in 2019.

Edmund King, director of the AA Charitable Trust, said: "Every death on our roads is a tragedy and it is worrying that after the pandemic, road deaths are rising.

"It is a preventable tragedy that a fifth of people who die in cars on our roads are not wearing a seatbelt.

"There needs to be concerted and targeted education to reach those drivers who choose to risk their lives for the sake of a two second action.

"It’s on all of us to eliminate deaths and casualties on our roads. As well as having more cops in cars to catch people in the act, road users need to take responsibility when heading out on the roads."

Overall, there were 135,480 casualties last year – up six per cent on 2021, but down 12 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

In Brighton and Hove, 189 people were seriously injured.

RAC road safety spokesman Rod Dennis said: "Confirmation that last year saw a rise in the number of casualties on our roads is a chilling reminder that there remains so much work to do be done to improve road safety in the UK, even if statistically we have some of the safest roads in Europe.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We welcome the continued decrease in road casualties compared with pre-Covid levels, with our roads being some of the safest in the world.”

Outside of coronavirus lockdowns, there has been no significant improvement in road crash fatality figures since around 2010.