Guidance

Road casualty statistics: overview and coverage

Updated 28 November 2024

The department’s statistics on personal injury road collisions are based on data collected and reported by police via the system known as STATS19 (named after the form used to collect the data). This document provides a brief introduction to the statistics and summarises their coverage, including notable topics not well covered by the collection.

For further details of the STATS19 data collection system please see the background information.

About the statistics

Road casualty statistics are based on data reported by police forces to the department. This data is collected by officers attending the scene of collisions, or by the public reporting collisions online or at police stations (where an officer did not attend).

Some 50 data items are collected for each collision, including the time and location of the collision, the types of vehicles involved and what they were doing at the time of the collision, and some information on the drivers and casualties involved. The data are processed and then passed by the police (or their agent) to the department for final checking and analysis.

Overall scope of the statistics

The statistics cover personal injury collisions (alternatively, accidents) on public roads (including footways) which become known to the police within 30 days. Damage-only collisions, with no human casualties, and collisions on private roads or car parks are not included in the statistics.

Quality of the statistics

The STATS19 data are not a complete record of all injury collisions and this should be borne in mind when using and analysing the data. However, they remain the most detailed, complete and reliable single source of information on road casualties covering the whole of Great Britain, in particular for monitoring trends over time.

Full details of the statistics and their quality can be accessed from the quality information page.

Completeness of the statistics

Comparisons with death registration statistics show that very few, if any, road collision fatalities are not reported to the police. However, it has long been known that a considerable proportion of non-fatal casualties are not known to the police, as hospital, survey and compensation claims data all indicate a higher number of casualties than are reported to the police via STATS19. For further details, please refer to our document comparing the different sources of casualty statistics.

The department produces an annual ‘best estimate’ of the total number of road casualties in Great Britain each year, including those not reported to police. This is derived primarily from National Travel Survey (NTS) data which, from 2013, is based on an England only resident sample. The latest such estimates are provided in data table RAS4201 with links to further information on how they have been compiled.

Injury severity and severity adjustments

The severity of casualties in collisions is recorded as either killed, seriously injured or slightly injured. Historically this severity was based on the judgement of reporting police officers, but in recent years many forces have adopted a new method of injury-based reporting where severity is determined from injuries recorded. This has impacted on the consistency of the data over time, as the new method tends to result in a higher proportion of injuries being recorded as serious.

Adjusted figures presented in these statistics are estimates of what the numbers would be if all police forces were using injury-based reporting systems (IBRS). It is likely that IBRS leads to more accurate severity classifications, as it relies less on police officers assessing the severity of the casualty themselves.

Severity adjustments have been produced to account for these changes in severity reporting systems used by the police to record casualty severity. These adjustments mean that figures can be compared across time, and avoids a break in the time-series. Detailed guidance on the background to and use of the adjustments is available.

Fatalities have not been adjusted as the definition of fatal has not changed between reporting systems. Only slight and serious injuries have been adjusted due to changes in the way slight and serious injuries are recorded in an injury-based severity reporting system.

Time periods covered

Latest data

We publish provisional annual road safety statistics in the May following the year to which the data relate with detailed final data in the following September. Provisional mid-year statistics, covering the year to June, are usually published in November. 

Drink-drive statistics follow a different timescale due to the time required to obtain data from coroners. Figures are published in July, 19 months after the end of the period to which they relate.

Timeliness of data

Final detailed road collision and casualty statistics are reported on a calendar year basis.

There is a clear public interest in road casualty data and statistics being put into the public domain. This allows people to make informed decisions on road safety issues based on the up-to-date data. However, it is also important that official statistics are released in compliance with the relevant legislation (the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007) and in an orderly manner that promotes public confidence in their objectivity and integrity.  The release of pre-announced official statistics is fully consistent with the legislation and promotes objectivity and integrity by making the figures available to all users in the same format at the same time.

The selective release of figures to requesters, in advance and based on incomplete and unchecked data, would undermine these principles. Furthermore, there is a substantial body of data for earlier years that has already been made publicly available and that provides a sound basis for many decisions on road safety matters.

Dataset coverage and access

Variables available in the STATS19 data

A full list of the data items collected by police within STATS19 is avaiable from the STATS20 guidance document, or from the data collection form, which are available from the forms and guidance page.

A list of the variables available within the open dataset, which includes some derived from other sources, is provided in tha dataset guide the open data page.

Access to statistics and data

There are a range of options for accessing road safety data:

• we publish around 50 data tables containing specific tabulations of the data - our table index lists everything that is available

• our interactive data tools provides access to collision and casualty data

• road safety data with details on each collision reported (except sensitive variables) is also made available in an open dataset

This includes collision coordinates, severity, and vehicles and casualties involved in each collision, along with other information including a variable lookup.

If you are interested in sensitive data (at the individual collision level, sensitive variables include contributory factors and casualty postcode), you can request this via email to the road safety statistics team. In this case, we will require an application form to be completed setting out the reasons the data are required and how confidentiality of sensitive variables will be maintained.

Collisions: coverage and exclusions

Types of collision included

Within our dataset collisions refer to personal-injury collisions, on public roads (including footways) which become known to the police within 30 days.

This does not cover all types of collision. In particular damage-only collisions, with no human casualties or collisions, on private roads or car parks are not included. 

Damage only collisions

These statistics are based on personal injury collisions, for example, those where at least one person involved was injured. No statistics are available on damage only collisions.

Roads: coverage and exclusions

Road names and numbers

We are only able to aggregate statistics up to individual roads where the road has a unique number. This restricts the information to motorways, A roads and B roads. All other roads are referred to by name. Names can be replicated on different roads around the country, and it is not practicable to aggregate statistics for named roads.

Smart motorways

The department does not hold information on smart motorways. The requested information is held by National Highways, who can be contacted by email.

Geographical areas: coverage and exclusions

With regards to the number of traffic incidents in a particular area, each road collision published as part of STATS19 is plotted onto a user-friendly map in our MAVRIC tool, on the THINK! Website or Crash Map website. These maps can be used to search for collisions at your location(s) of interest. Other websites are available, for example Collision Plot.

Alternatively, for defined geographies (such as local authorities or police force areas) data may be available in our data tables or interactive tools. The road safety open data includes the location of each collision reported which allows incidents to be counted based on their location, or grouped to any desired geography.

Vehicles and drivers: coverage and exclusions

Vehicle make and model

Details of the make and model of vehicles involved in collisions forms part of the department’s database (based on information linked from Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency records) but is not included in the published statistics. 

A generic make and model is included as part of the open dataset.  An application for anything more detailed  would need to be made as outlined above.  This includes any requests relating to some of the vehicle details held including weight and engine capacity.

Foreign vehicles and drivers

The department does not hold information on the nationality of drivers involved in road collisions. STATS19 records whether the vehicles involved in a collision were left hand drive (LHD) vehicles. However, caution should be taken using this variable for analysis other than what it was intended for, that is to identify LHD vehicles. A large proportion of foreign vehicles driving on British roads are from the Republic of Ireland where they also drive on the left.

British and Irish vehicles can be driven by foreign drivers, and it is also possible that that some foreign vehicles are also driven by British drivers. Some vehicles registered in Britain are only available in LHD, such as mobile cranes, refuse vehicles, road sweepers and other vehicles of this nature. As a result, LHD cannot be used as a proxy for foreign vehicles or drivers.

Published table RAS0505 provides a breakdown of LHD vehicles involved in personal injury reported road collisions by vehicle type.

Driver licence status

The department does not collect any information on the license status of drivers involved in reported personal injury road collisions.  No information is collected on nationality of driver, whether a licence is held or what level of licence.

Casualties: coverage and exclusions

Animals

The department does not collect information on pets or other animals injured in car collisions. Collisions to be reported are those involving human death or personal injury occurring on the public highway and notified to the police within 30 days of occurrence, and in which one or more vehicles are involved.

e-scooters

The published statistics do not yet identify e-scooters in the same way as other vehicle types. Although e-scooters are not currently one of the designated vehicle types in STATS19, guidance has been issued to police forces to identify them using the free text field for other vehicles.

Figures for e-scooter collisions and casualties are not currently included in the published spreadsheet data tables, but are contained within an annual e-scooter casualty  factsheet

The STATS19 data collection system is being amended so that e-scooters (and similar) can be identified as a vehicle type – details are given in the recent STATS19 review report. Data has begun to be recorded using this approach from November 2023, in some police forces.

Occupation

The department does not hold information on the occupation of casualties therefore we do not know how many reported road casualties were, for example, police officers or doctors. Road maintenance workers is the only occupation that can be derived from STATS19 data.

Collision causation: coverage and exclusions

STATS19 does not assign blame to any party involved in a collision.  Instead, police officers reporting the data can provide information on  the factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision occurring

Contributory factors and road safety factors

Contributory factors (CFs for short) provide some insight into why and how road collisions occur. They are designed to give the key actions and failures that led directly to the actual impact to aid investigation of how collisions might be prevented. When police officers attend the scene of an collision, they are able to select up to six factors they believe contributed to the collision (for vehicles and casualties involved).

From the end of 2023 onwards, contributory factors will begin to be replaced by the new road safety factors (RSFs). Further details of CFs and the transition to the new RSFs can be found in the contributory factors guidance.

Related statistics available elsewhere

General road safety statistics and research

The Road Safety Observatory is a publicly available depository of all road safety research.

Motoring offences and convictions

The Department for Transport does not hold data on motoring offences or convictions, for example related to speeding or drink-driving. 

For details on vehicle offences dealt with by the courts see Ministry of Justice statistical bulletin, Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly and associated outcomes by offences data tool. Further information is available from the Ministry of Justice.

For details on fixed penalty notices and written warnings see Home Office statistical bulletin, Police Powers and Procedures England and Wales year ending 31 March. Further information is available from the Home Office.

Please direct any further enquiry on speed limit offences to the Ministry of Justice and enquiries on fixed penalty notices and written warnings to the Home Office.

Driver licence endorsements

DVLA holds information regarding licence points, for example to offence code CU80 - ‘Breach of requirements as to control of the vehicle’. For information regarding the number of licence points, please contact DVLA.

Hospital admissions for road casualties

Data on hospital admissions are collected by NHS digital.

Some analysis of hospital data for road casualties is included in our annual road safety publications with figures included in published table RAS4001.

Road safety data for Northern Ireland

The data we hold only covers reported personal injury road collisions in Great Britain, we do not have data for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland statistics are published separately by the Police Service for Northern Ireland.

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Contact details

Road safety statistics

Email [email protected]