Road accidents and safety

This series presents statistics on road safety in Great Britain. Most of the statistics are based on accidents reported to the police (STATS19 system). These provide detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal injury road accidents, including the types of vehicles involved and the consequent casualties.

Other sources directly related to road safety are also used, including hospital admissions, death registrations, coroner’s reports, surveys, and statistics on breath tests and motoring offences from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.

Browse statistical releases within this series

Road accidents and safety statistical releases

Browse individual statistical tables within this series

Road accidents and safety statistical tables

Earlier material can be found here.

Key releases

The following road safety statistical releases are published during the year.

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: main results (June)
First release of key annual statistics on casualties and accidents reported to the police
Reported in Great Britain: quarterly provisional estimates (August, November, February)
Key quarterly statistics. No release for final quarter of the year as this is covered by the annual results
Reported road casualties in Great Britain: annual reports (September)
Detailed data and analyses of road casualties, with articles presenting further analysis on specific road safety topics
Reported road casualties in Great Britain: estimates for accidents involving illegal alcohol levels (August)
An annual statistical release providing provisional estimates on accidents involving drinking and driving in Great Britain

Other ad-hoc surveys or factsheets are also published from time to time.

National Statistics

Most of the statistics published in this series are National Statistics. Those that are not are provided to give extra context and are clearly identified.

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) assessed police reported road casualty statistics and published a report (Report 4) in July 2009. This report, and the letter confirming their designation as National Statistics are available at:

UKSA assessment reports

Pre-release access lists

These lists detail the post holders that are given pre-release access for up to 24 hours prior to release.

Pre-release access list (PDF – 20 KB)

Notes and guidance

As noted above, statistics on road safety in Great Britain are mostly based on accidents reported to the police via the STATS19 system. Comparisons with death registration statistics show that very few, if any, road accident 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.

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. The latest such estimates, along with a description of how the have been derived and their limitations, are set out in an annual article published in the in Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: Annual report.

The STATS19 data are therefore not a complete record of all injury accidents 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.

Technical information

There is a Standing Committee on Road Accident Statistics (SCRAS), chaired by DfT, which oversees the collection of road accident data. The Committee contains representatives from polices forces, local authorities and the devolved administrations.