The number of residents killed on Brighton and Hove’s streets has exceeded the authority’s own forecasts for a second year running.

On average a motorist, pedestrian or cyclist was killed or seriously injured every 54 hours in Brighton and Hove in 2012.

New figures show that 160 people were seriously injured or killed on the city’s roads in 2012 – nearly 10% more than forecasts.

In total across the whole of Sussex, 42 people died on our roads in 2012 – down almost a third on last year.

In total eight pedestrians, three cyclists, 10 bikers and 20 motorists died last year in Sussex.

However, the 812 people killed or seriously injured on Sussex roads last year was well below the 900 as predicted using Government calculations.

The continuing problem on Brighton and Hove’s roads has been flagged up in the council’s performance plan as an area of concern.

Council officials said they hoped that the introduction of 20 mph zones across the city would help to lower the number of accidents.

Last year transport officials said they did not know why the city was bucking the national trend when road accidents rose.

The number of injured has dropped by 6% since last year but remains above predicted levels.

Steve Percy, of the People’s Parking Protest, said: “If they have introduced all these 20 mph zones, bus lanes and everything else designed to slow you down, they can’t really blame those figures on speeding, they have to look for a different reason.

“If people are getting frustrated, if you think you have to get past this traffic, take a chance, then I think that is the cause of a lot of accidents.”

Councillor Ian Davey, lead member for transport, said: “The 2012 collision and casualty data for Brighton and Hove actually shows an improvement on the previous year, which is to be welcomed.

"However much more needs to be done to make the city’s roads safer.

"We hope that the schemes at The Seven Dials and The Lewes Road, alongside the introduction of 20mph speed limits in residential areas, will help to make our roads even safer in the future.

“We are aware that many incidents go unreported and the council is not complacent about current casualty levels.”

Neil Hopkins, of Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, said: “Obviously, we are pleased to see that Sussex is continuing to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads.

“Nationally, there is a general downward trend in the number of road deaths and serious injuries, so we would expect to see Sussex figures reducing in accordance with that.

“In addition, the recession is generally expected to have had an impact on the way people get around, and lower numbers of car journeys tend to lead to lower injury rates.”