Police recorded road collisions: 2024

The focus of this release is on police recorded road collisions in 2024 with a brief overview of their casualties. A complete analysis of road casualties in 2024 will be published in our Reported road casualties bulletin on 27 November 2025.

This release covers 2024 data which was provisionally published on 21 May 2025. In previous years, quarter 4 collisions data have been published as part of a detailed annual collisions publication in the summer. However, due to a delay in data submissions from one police force, we published the quarter 4 and annual 2024 data as ‘provisional’ in May 2025. These delays have since been resolved, and we are now able to publish a more detailed statical bulletin on collisions in 2024.

Given the increased interest in collisions data since the roll out of the 20mph default speed limit on 17 September 2023, we published a Chief Statistician’s update on ‘understanding road collisions and casualty statistics’ on 24 May 2024.

All the underlying data is published on StatsWales, and our road collisions dashboard. This includes additional detail on collisions and casualties by geographical area, speed limit, severity and vehicle type.

Detailed quality information is published in the accompanying quality report.

This release includes the first full calendar year of data since the introduction of the 20mph default speed limit.

• In 2024, police in Wales recorded a total of 2,917 road collisions, a decrease of 10.6% compared to 2023, and 32.6% lower than in 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic). This was the lowest annual number of road collisions recorded except for 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Of these collisions, 78 were classed as fatal collisions, 873 were serious and 1,966 were classed as slight.
• During 2024, police recorded road collisions resulted in 4,005 casualties. Of these casualties, 84 were fatalities, 1,007 people were seriously injured and 2,914 people were slightly injured.

Figure 1: recorded road collisions, Wales,1994 to 2024

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Description of figure 1: the line chart shows a time series of police reported road collisions for Wales from 1994 to 2024.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

• Looking at the long-term trend, there has been an overall decrease in road collisions recorded by police in Wales.
• This overall decrease in the number of road collisions is mostly driven by a decrease in ‘slight’ injury collisions. In 2024, there were 78% fewer slight collisions recorded than in 1994. The number of collisions classed as serious or fatal collisions reduced by 46% over the same time period.
• The number of reported fatal collisions has been broadly stable since 2010 after falling significantly over previous decades.

The data presented in this report reflect the personal injury road collisions reported by police in Wales. While these data are the most detailed and reliable source of information on road collisions and casualties, they do not provide a complete record of all such incidents – for example, hospital, survey, and compensation claims data indicate that many non-fatal collisions are not reported to or reported by the police.

Overall, the available sources show that collisions reported to, and recorded by, police represent only a subset of all personal injury road collisions, but that coverage of serious injuries and fatalities is good. Further information is provided in the accompanying quality report.

There have been two changes that have affected police recorded road collisions data since 2023. 

Adoption of injury-based reporting system for reporting of road collisions

On 15 May 2023 Dyfed Powys police force was the first police force in Wales to migrate to the new standardised reporting tool (CRaSH - Collision Recording and Sharing) which is designed to provide a common way for police to collate and submit road collisions data. CRaSH is an injury-based reporting system (IBRS), and the Department for Transport (DfT) have found that police forces using IBRS are likely to report more severe collisions than in the previous data collection.

This is further explained in our quality report, and we will continue to review how this impacts our data.

Introduction of the 20mph default speed limit

On 17 September 2023, the law changed the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales from 30mph to 20mph. These are usually residential or busy pedestrian streets with streetlights. The changes will have affected most roads that were 30mph before 17 September, but not all. We have published a map on DataMapWales that shows which roads have stayed at 30mph.

Individual collisions can result in multiple casualties with different levels of injury severity. The severity of a collision is determined by the most seriously injured casualty in the collision. For example, if there are five casualties and one fatality, the collision will be classed as fatal.

During 2024, 2,917 road collisions involving personal injury were recorded by police in Wales. Of these collisions:

• 78 were classed as fatal
• 873 were classed as serious
• 1,966 were classed as slight

Figure 2 illustrates the contrast between the downward trend in collisions on Welsh roads and the gradual increase in the volume of road traffic.

The introduction of compulsory wearing of seat belts in the 1980s and improvements to vehicle technology are likely to have contributed to the reduction in the number of collisions with personal injury.

Figure 2: recorded road collisions and traffic volume on Welsh roads, 1994 to 2024

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Description of figure 2: the line chart illustrates the contrast between the downward trend in collisions on Welsh roads since 1994 and the gradual increase in the volume of road traffic.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant decreases in traffic volume and road collisions in Wales and, although levels have increased since, they have not returned to the levels observed in 2019. 

In 2024, the number of road collisions involving personal injury recorded by police in Wales was lower than 2023, decreasing by 10.6%. There were 32.6% fewer road collisions in 2024 than in 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

There has been a long-term downward trend in the number of KSI collisions on Welsh roads. In 2024 there were 951 KSI collisions. Our interactive road collisions dashboard, published alongside this bulletin, provides breakdown of data by features such as location and provides breakdowns of data by features such as location and demographic information about the casualties involved in more detail.

There were 78 recorded fatal collisions in Wales in 2024. Looking at the historical trend, the number of reported fatal collisions has been broadly stable since 2010 after falling significantly over previous decades (figure 3). Wales reported the lowest number of fatal collisions in 2020 (73) which is likely due to coronavirus (COVID-19) travel restrictions that saw reduced traffic levels on roads. In 2024, Wales reported the lowest number of fatal collisions for a year except for 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Care should be taken when interpreting changes in small numbers, such as fatal collisions per year. For detailed breakdowns or analysis of change over time it may be more appropriate to look at trends in total KSI collisions.

The number of KSI collisions recorded since 2023 will be impacted by Dyfed Powys police force migrating to injury-based reporting. We would expect to see an increase in reported serious collisions within the Dyfed Powys police force areas, and a decrease in reported slight collisions. This is discussed further in our accompanying quality report and we will continue to analyse the impact of the change.

Figure 3: number of KSI collisions on Welsh roads 1994 to 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 3: the line chart shows the time series of KSI collisions that have taken place on Welsh roads from 1994 to 2024. In 2024, there were 873 serious collisions.

[Note 1] In May 2023 Dyfed Powys police force migrated to injury based reporting system for reporting road collisions. Further information is provided in the accompanying quality report.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

In 2024, police officers attended all  fatal collisions (this includes any fatalities that occurred 30 days post collision), 94% of serious collisions and 83% of slight collisions recorded by police.

Dyfed-Powys Police force recorded the most collisions in 2024, a total of 1,024 (equal to the previous year), followed by South Wales Police who reported 800 road collisions over the same time period (a decrease of 16.5% on the previous year). Gwent Police recorded 571 collisions in 2024 (an increase of 12.6% on the previous year) and North Wales Police Force recorded the lowest number of road collisions at 522 (a decrease of 32.6% on the previous year).

Figure 4: reported road collisions by police force area, 2023 and 2024

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Description of figure 4: the bar chart shows total collisions that have taken place on Welsh roads by police force area in 2023 and 2024.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

In this section we present total collisions by the speed limit of the road they occurred on.

Some data quality issues have been identified relating to the recorded speed limit of the road where collisions occurred. Additional validation checks have been carried out with support from local authorities to ensure speed limit data for collisions on roads with a 20mph or 30mph speed limit are of good quality. As a result of these data issues, care should be taken when interpreting this data. The issues are described in greater detail in the data quality issues section of the Police recorded road collisions: 2023 bulletin.

When considering the number of collisions by the speed limit of the road they occurred on, there are some important factors to consider:

• In 2022, the length of roads with a 20mph speed limit was 870km. On 17 September 2023, this increased to around 13,000km due to a change in default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph. Most roads that were 30mph were changed to 20mph.
• Road sections with a 30mph speed limit were reduced from 13,100km in 2022 to 980km in 2023.
• There are no official data sources currently available on the volume of traffic on roads with different speed limits.

Road sections with a 70mph speed limit had the lowest proportion of collisions in 2024, accounting for 5.1% of all collisions.

Figure 5: reported road collisions by road speed limit, 2024

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Description of figure 5: the bar chart shows total collisions by road speed limit, 2024.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

KSI collisions occurring on 60mph roads accounted for the highest proportion (38.1%) of all KSI collisions reported in 2024 compared to roads with other speed limits.

This section considers collisions that occurred on all 20mph and 30mph roads (combined) to allow direct comparisons for the same set of roads before and after the change in default speed limit on restricted roads.

Road collisions data after the change to the 20mph default speed limit is currently limited to a relatively short period of time (this release covers 17 September 2023 to 31 December 2024) and can be volatile over the short term. Care should be taken when interpreting this data over a short time period, we will continue to monitor this over time as more data becomes available. Our Chief Statistician’s update includes more information.

In 2024, there were 1,443 collisions on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits (combined) which is the lowest annual number recorded in Wales. This is 18.9% lower than in 2023 (1,780 collisions), the year that the change in default speed limit was implemented, and 23.5% lower than in 2022 (1,886 collisions), the most recent full calendar year before the change.

The number of road collisions on roads with lower speed limits (20mph and 30mph) has generally been declining steadily over the last decade.

Figure 6: annual road collisions on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits (combined), Wales, 2010 to 2024

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Description of figure 6: the line chart shows a time series for police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20 or 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales each from 2010 to 2024. The number of road collisions on 20mph and 30mph (combined) roads has declined steadily over the last decade.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

The proportions of road collisions by type of vehicle are shown in figure 7. In 2024, 73% (3,701) of all vehicles in police-recorded road collisions were accounted for by ‘cars, taxis, and minibuses. Motorcycles accounted for 10% (483) of vehicles involved in collisions and pedal cycles accounted for 4% (222).

Road collisions since 1996 have shown a decreasing trend in the number of road collisions for all vehicle types.

Figure 7: proportions of types of vehicles involved in road traffic collisions, Wales, 2024 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 7: the pie chart shows proportion of vehicles involved in road collisions by type of vehicle. 73% of all vehicles in 2024 were accounted for by ‘cars, taxi and minibus’ (3,701).

[Note 1] Other: Includes buses, coaches, goods vehicles, motor caravans, other and unknown vehicles.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

In previous years, both motorcycles and pedal cycles have made up a greater proportion of vehicles involved in police-recorded road collisions than their proportion of vehicle traffic on Welsh roads.

In 2024, motorcycles and pedal cycles represented 10% and 4% of vehicles recorded in collisions respectively but each contributed less than 1% of the total traffic on Welsh roads.

This year we have moved from publishing contributory factors to RSFs following the recommendations from the road collisions STATS19 review. This aligns with the change also undertaken by the Department for Transport in their publications.

Road Safety Factors (RSFs) in road collisions are the key actions and failures that led directly to the collision. They show which factors the attending police officer thought contributed to the cause of a collision. Attending police officers may record up to 6 RSFs for each collision from a list of 35 possible RSFs.

RSFs are designed to focus on recording factors related to areas where action can be taken to improve road safety, and to reduce the list of potential factors, with a new set of codes. Further details on RSFs, including information about converting data recorded as contributory factors to RSFs, can be found on the in the Department for Transport, Reported road casualties Great Britain, annual report.

This analysis focuses on collisions which involve casualties who were either killed or seriously injured, as police officer attendance is much more common at these collisions.

In 2024, a total of 1,953 RSFs were recorded as causes of KSI collisions in Wales. Factors are identified on the basis of evidence, and this may come from various sources such as witness statements and vehicle and site inspections. RSFs may be subjective and depend on the skill and experience of the investigating officer to reconstruct the events which led directly to the collision. They reflect the reporting officer’s opinion at the time of reporting and are not necessarily the result of extensive investigation.

Figure 8 shows the most common individual RSFs judged to be either possible or very likely causes for KSI collisions in 2024. The three most common factors were:

• ineffective observation by either the driver, rider or pedestrian (used 427 times)
• driver/rider being aggressive, dangerous or reckless (used 297 times)
• driver/rider travelling too fast for conditions (including loss of control or swerving) (used 265 times)

Figure 8: most common causes of KSI collisions, 2024

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Description of figure 8: the bar chart shows the number of times each of the most commonly recorded RSFs were recorded for KSI collisions in 2024 by likelihood. ‘Ineffective observation by either the driver, rider or pedestrian’ was the most frequently recorded factor.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 9 shows the proportion of KSI collisions with at least one factor recorded that fall into each RSF section. A collision can be assigned multiple factors and therefore the numbers in Figure 9 may sum to more than 100%.

The 3 RSFs with the largest number of KSI collisions

1. Behaviour or inexperience (54% of KSI collisions).
2. Speed related (52% of KSI collisions).
3. Distraction or impairment (28% of KSI collisions).

Figure 9: proportion of KSI collisions with RSFs assigned, by RSF section, Wales, 2024

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Description of figure 9: the bar chart shows proportion of KSI collisions with at least one factor recorded that fall into each RSF section. ‘Behaviour or inexperience’ was the section most frequently recorded as a factor.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

This section includes high level information on casualties, breakdowns of this data is available in our Reported road casualties statistical bulletin which will be published on 27 November 2025. The Reported road casualties bulletin will include further breakdowns such as type of road user, age and sex.

It is likely that KSI collisions and casualties since 2023 are affected by Dyfed Powys police force migrating to injury-based reporting. This is further discussed in our quality report.

During 2024, police reported road collisions resulted in 4,005 casualties. Of these casualties:

• 84 were fatal
• 1,007 people were seriously injured
• 2,914 casualties were slightly injured

Figure 10 illustrates the trend in the number of fatal, serious and KSI casualties since 1994. Over this time there was a significant fall in KSI casualties, from 2,208 KSI casualties in 1994 to a low of 820 in 2020. Care should be taken in comparing with 2020 as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted collision and casualty figures.

In 2024, there was a total of 1,091 reported KSI road casualties in Wales.

Figure 10: KSI casualties by severity, 1994 to 2024

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Description of figure 10: the line chart shows the trend in KSI casualties by severity, 1994 to 2024. In May 2023 Dyfed Powys police force migrated to an injury-based reporting system (CRaSH) for reporting road collisions. Further information is provided in the accompanying quality report.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

The reported casualties by speed limit data for 2024 indicate that most casualties occurred on roads with a speed limit of 20mph, followed by roads with a 60mph speed limit. Most pedestrian casualties were reported on roads with a speed limit of 20mph and 30mph.

Figure 11: reported road casualties by road speed limit, 2024

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Description of figure 11: the bar chart shows the number of casualties from police-recorded road collisions by road speed limit in Wales in 2024.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 12 shows the long-term trend of the number of casualties from collisions that occurred on 20mph and 30mph roads (combined).

In 2024, there were 1,759 casualties reported on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits (combined) which is the lowest annual number reported in Wales. This is 19.5% lower than in 2023 (2,185 casualties), the year that the change in default speed limit was implemented, and 25.0% lower than in 2022 (2,344 casualties), the most recent full calendar year before the change in default speed limit.

The number of casualties in road collisions on roads with lower speed limits (20mph and 30mph), has generally been declining steadily over the last decade.

Figure 12: police reported road casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads, 2010 to 2024

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Description of figure 12: the line chart shows a time series for the number of casualties in police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20mph or 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales each year from 2010 to 2024. The numbers have declined steadily over the last decade.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Detailed quality information is published in the accompanying quality report. Some main points are below.

These statistics only include road collisions which resulted in personal injury and for which information was reported by the police. It is known that there is an element of under-recording of such incidents, particularly for less severe incidents where police officers may not have been in attendance.

These statistics do not include collisions:

• that were not reported to the police
• that occurred on private land i.e. car parks or fields
• where no personal injury was recorded
• where the collision was later confirmed by a medical professional or coroner to be a suicide or medical episode

Details of the data collection and validation processes, strengths and limitations of the data, and revisions policy are provided in the quality report.

Official statistics status

All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority).  

These are accredited official statistics. The designation of these statistics was confirmed in July 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.

These accredited official statistics (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.

Trustworthiness

These statistics use data collected by Welsh Police Forces via the STATS19 system. The UK-level data, together with a full description of the sources and methods used to compile these data can be found on the GOV.UK website (Road Safety Statistics (DfT)). 

These statistics are pre-announced on the Statistics and Research area of the Welsh Government website. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).

Quality

The published figures provided are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset. Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics UK Statistics Authority) and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.

The statistical release is then drafted, signed off by senior statisticians and published in line with the Welsh Government’s statement on confidentiality and data access.

Detailed quality information is published in the accompanying quality report.

Value

The purposes of this statistical release and the accompanying data published on StatsWales are to provide evidence for policy development and to inform the media and wider public about the changes to the police recorded road collisions in Wales.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk  or via the OSR website. which is informed by the trustworthiness pillar contained in the Code of Practice for Statistics UK Statistics Authority).

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

Transport Statistics
Email: stats.transport@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SB 30/2025