Police recorded road collisions and casualties: 2025

This release combines two previous publications on police recorded road collisions and casualties into one report. This integrated approach allows for a more comprehensive analysis of road collisions and resulting casualties.

All the underlying data is published on StatsWales, and our road collisions dashboard. This includes additional details on:

• collisions and casualties by geographical area
• speed limit
• severity
• vehicle type

Detailed quality information is published in the accompanying quality report.

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. This release covers the second calendar year of data since the 20mph default speed limit was introduced.

Recent trends in the number of casualties seriously injured should be treated with caution due to changes in reporting processes within some police forces (see the quality section).

• There has been an overall decrease in road collisions recorded by police in Wales over the last thirty years.
• In 2025, there were 3,004 police reported road collisions in Wales resulting in 4,078 casualties. 
• Casualties have increased by 2% compared to 2024 and are 8% lower than in 2022 (the last calendar year before the 20mph default speed limit was introduced). 
• Of the 4,078 casualties, 91 were killed, 1,116 people were seriously injured and 2,871 people were slightly injured.
• Police in Wales recorded a total of 3,004 road collisions, an increase of 3% compared to 2024, and 9% lower than in 2022. Over the same period, road traffic in Wales increased by 2% to the highest level ever recorded in Wales.
• Of the 3,004 collisions, 83 were classed as fatal collisions, 979 were serious and 1,942 were classed as slight.

Figure 1: police recorded road collisions, Wales, 1995 to 2025

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Description of figure 1: the line chart shows a time series of police reported road collisions for Wales from 1995 to 2025, showing an overall decrease in road collisions recorded by police in Wales over the last 30 years.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

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 2 changes that have affected police recorded road collisions data since 2024. The changes are as follows.

Introduction of the 20mph default speed limit

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

Injury severity reporting and adjustments

In our next publication, we will introduce a new methodology which will affect how the severity of casualties and collisions statistics are reported. The severity of casualties in collisions is recorded as either killed, seriously injured or slightly injured. Historically, this has been based on the judgement of reporting police officers, but in recent years many forces across Great Britain have adopted a new method of injury-based reporting where severity is determined from a pre-defined list of injuries. This removes an element of judgement from the coding of severity and is expected to be more accurate and more consistent across forces. 

The introduction of injury-based report systems (IBRS) in England led to a change in the reported severity of road casualties, with a higher proportion of injuries recorded as serious after IBRS was introduced. In Wales, Dyfed-Powys moved to an IBRS system in May 2023 and South Wales police force moved to an IBRS in November 2025, meaning two police forces in Wales are now reporting using IBRS.  Due to the inconsistency in reporting methods between police forces in Wales (with two on IBRS and two on non-IBRS), a means of adjusting data for forces not using injury-based reporting is required to estimate what the numbers would be if all police forces were using IBRS to ensure comparability between police forces and over time. 

Given that two police forces have now moved to an injury-based reporting system, we intend to adjust data not using IBRS from the next quarterly publication in July. This will ensure that collisions and casualties are recorded consistently across police forces in Wales. This is because the two police forces on IBRS will likely have had an increase in the number of casualties and collisions recorded as serious from the point when they moved to IBRS. The move to an injury-based reporting system does not affect the total number of collisions, or the total number of fatalities.

This is discussed further in our accompanying quality report.

In advance of the quarterly publication, we will publish a Chief Statistician’s blog providing further information on:

• severity adjustments
• the methodology and its likely impact
• a timeline of how we got here and our plans for future publications to help users understand these changes

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 5 casualties and 1 fatality, the collision will be classed as fatal.

During 2025, 3,004 road collisions involving personal injury were recorded by police in Wales. Of these collisions:

• 83 were classed as fatal
• 979 were classed as serious
• 1,942 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, 1995 to 2025

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Description of figure 2: the line chart illustrates the contrast between the downward trend in collisions on Welsh roads since 1995 and the gradual increase in the volume of road traffic.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there were significant decreases in traffic volume and road collisions in Wales. Traffic volume in 2025 has since increased above 2019 to it’s highest ever level, but road collisions have not returned to the levels observed in 2019.

In 2025, police officers attended all fatal collisions (this includes any fatalities that occurred 30 days post collision), 92% of serious collisions and 81% of slight collisions recorded by police.

Dyfed-Powys Police force recorded the most collisions in 2025, a total of 1,089 (an increase of 6% on the previous year), followed by South Wales Police who reported 799 road collisions over the same time period (similar to the previous year). Gwent Police recorded 580 collisions in 2025 (an increase of 2% on the previous year) and North Wales Police force recorded the lowest number of road collisions at 536 (an increase of 2% on the previous year).

Figure 3: reported road collisions by police force area, 2024 and 2025

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Description of figure 3: the bar chart shows total collisions that have taken place on Welsh roads by police force area in 2024 and 2025. In both years, Dyfed-Powys Police force recorded the most collisions and North Wales Police force recorded the lowest number.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

After the change in speed limit, some data quality issues were 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 robust. As a result of these data issues, care should be taken when interpreting this data. These quality issues are described in more 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.

Figure 4: reported road collisions by road speed limit, 2025

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Description of figure 4: the bar chart shows total collisions by road speed limit, 2025. Killed or seriously injured (KSI) collisions occurring on 60mph roads accounted for the highest proportion (37%) of all KSI collisions reported in 2025 compared to roads with other speed limits.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

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 less than three years. 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 2025, there were 1,469 collisions on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits (combined) which is 2% higher than in 2024 (1,445 collisions) but is the second lowest annual number recorded in Wales (the lowest being in 2024). Collisions were 22% lower than in 2022 (1,886 collisions), the most recent full calendar year before the change in default speed limit was implemented.

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

Figure 5: annual road collisions on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits (combined), Wales, 2011 to 2025

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Description of figure 5: the line chart shows a time series for police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20 and 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales each from 2011 to 2025. 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

This section presents high level summaries for all casualties in Wales, including some breakdowns by age and sex. The later sections in this bulletin focus on motorcyclist casualties, pedal cyclist casualties, pedestrian casualties and young people. More analysis of these casualties can be accessed from the accompanying Road collisions dashboard under casualties’ view and from StatsWales tables.

During 2025, police forces in Wales recorded a total of 3,004 road collisions involving personal injury, which resulted in 4,078 casualties. Of these casualties:

• 91 were killed (2%)
• 1,116 people were seriously injured (27%)
• 2,871 people were slightly injured (70%)

91 people were killed in collisions in Wales in 2025, 7 more people than in 2024 (84) but 5 fewer than the last calendar year before the introduction of the 20mph default speed limit in 2022 (96). The number of reported fatal collisions has been broadly stable since 2010.

Care should be taken when interpreting changes in small numbers, such as the number of casualties killed per year. 

1,207 (30%) casualties were killed or seriously injured (KSI) in 2025. This was 10% higher than 2024 and 19% higher than in 2022. However, due to the introduction of injury-based reporting in Dyfed-Powys police force in May 2023 and in South Wales police in November 2025, force, we cannot say whether that increase is a genuine increase or due to the change in reporting method. This is because we would expect to see an increase in reported serious casualties and a decrease in reported slight casualties within these two police forces from the point when they moved to IBRS. Once we introduce IBRS adjustments in our Q1 2026 release in July, we will be able to provide a further assessment of whether KSIs have genuinely been increasing and the scale of that increase. 

We haven’t analysed collisions by severity in this bulletin as the changes over time are similar to the changes seen in casualties. Collisions data is still available for analysis on StatsWales.

Figure 6: KSI casualties by severity, 1995 to 2025

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Description of figure 6: the line chart shows the trend in KSI casualties by severity, 1995 to 2025. In May 2023, Dyfed Powys police force migrated to an injury-based reporting system for reporting road collisions where casualties are more likely to be reported as serious than in the previous data collection system. South Wales police force migrated in November 2025.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

On 28 May, Department for Transport (DfT) published a statistical release on provisional annual 2025 road casualties data across Great Britain (DfT). This release included reported road casualties by severity and region which allows us to compare Welsh casualties with the rest of Great Britain.

Data from the DfT are provisional. DfT currently report a slightly lower number of casualties than the Welsh Government. The DfT figure is expected to be revised in line with the Welsh Government figure in July.

The figures in the DfT release, for killed or seriously injured casualties, are based on adjusting figures reported by the police to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. This means they differ from the approach used in the rest of this release. The DfT adjusted figures are best suited to reliably comparing trends over time across the UK. More details can be found in DfT’s severity adjustments guidance.

Over the longer term, the total number of casualties due to police recorded road collisions have decreased in Wales and Scotland (47% and 49% respectively) at a faster rate than in England (29%) since 2015 (Figure 7). However, since 2024, the total number of casualties in Wales have increased by 2%. This is a larger change than Great Britain which has experienced a small decrease of less than 1%. This compares to a 3% decrease in Scotland and a small decrease of less than 1% in England.

The increase in casualties in Wales is the second largest amongst the 11 British countries and regions, with only East Midlands having a larger increase.

The number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in Wales has increased by 9% from 2024 to 2025. This compares to a 4% increase in England and Great Britain, and a 5% decrease in Scotland.

The increase in KSI casualties in Wales was the second largest across the 11 British countries and regions. Only the East of England had a larger increase.

Figure 7: road casualties by country, 2015 to 2025

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Description of figure 7: the line chart shows the trend in road casualties for road users in Wales, England and Scotland between 2015 and 2025. The data has been indexed to 2015 (2015=100) to allow comparability between countries over time. The chart shows a decrease over the last decade with Wales and Scotland decreasing at a faster rate than England.

Source: Reported road casualties in Great Britain, DfT

Figures 8 and 9 show the trends in the number of road casualties for different road user types. All categories of road users have seen an overall decrease in road casualties over time.

Figure 8: road casualties travelling by car, taxi and minibus, 1995 to 2025

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Description of figure 8: the line chart shows the trend in road casualties for ‘car, taxi and minibus’ road users in Wales between 1995 and 2025. The chart shows a general decrease over the last two decades. 

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 9: road casualties by type of road user excluding ‘car, taxi and minibus’, 1995 to 2025 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 9: the line charts show the trends in road casualties for motorcyclists, pedal cyclists, pedestrians and other road users overtime. The charts show a general decline in road casualties reported for all types of road users.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

[Note 1] Motorcycle: Includes mopeds, motor scooters, motorcycles and combinations. Other vehicles: Includes buses/coaches, vans and goods vehicles.

There has been a considerable decrease in the number of KSI casualties on Welsh roads since the 1970s for all types of road users.

Each category of road user has a different chance of having a serious injury. Pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists are considered to be vulnerable road users as they are at a higher risk of being involved in a collision (relative to distance travelled) or are more vulnerable in terms of becoming a casualty, if involved in a collision.

Car, taxi and minibus users accounted for 61% of total casualties but 46% of KSI casualties in 2025.

Motorcyclists accounted for 13% of total casualties, however, they accounted for 24% of KSI casualties. Pedestrians also accounted for a higher proportion of KSI casualties than they did for total casualties, reflecting that they are more likely to be killed or seriously injured if involved in a collision.

More analysis of these casualties can be accessed from the accompanying Road collisions dashboard under casualties’ view and from the StatsWales tables: road.

Road casualties were more likely to be male than female. Males accounted for 61% of all casualties and 68% of KSI casualties in Wales in 2025.

Figure 10: road casualties by sex and severity, 2025

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Description of figure 10: the column chart compares the number of male and female casualties by severity in 2025. The chart shows road casualties are more likely to be male than female across different severities.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 11 shows the long-term trend in the number of KSI casualties by age group. Since 1995, the numbers have fallen across all age groups, with children (under 16) having the largest percentage decrease (71%), followed by the 16 to 24 age group (55%). For the 45 to 69 age group, the number has decreased by 9% since 1995. 

The number of KSI casualties reported will be impacted by Dyfed Powys and South Wales police force migrating to injury-based reporting from May 2023 and November 2025. We would expect to see an increase in reported serious casualties within these police force areas, and a decrease in reported slight casualties. Further information is provided in the accompanying quality report.

Figure 11: KSI casualties by age group, 1995 to 2025

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Description of figure 11: the line chart shows the trend in KSI casualties by age group in Wales between 1995 and 2025. Since 1995, the numbers have fallen across all age groups, with children (under 16) having the largest percentage decrease (71%), followed by the 16 to 24 age group (55%).

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

One way to examine which road users are the most vulnerable is by looking at the number of casualties as a proportion of the population. The following sections of this bulletin show the number of road casualties reported as a rate per 100,000 people in the population in Wales based on mid-year population estimates for 2024. Population estimates for Wales are published on StatsWales.

In 2025, young people (aged 16 to 24) were the most at risk age group of being injured in a road collision, with 265 casualties per 100,000 young people in the population. 

Figure 12 shows the KSI casualties reported as a rate per 100,000 people in the population. It highlights the disproportionately high rate of KSI casualties among young people (16 to 24) in 2025, where there were 80 KSI casualties per 100,000 people in the age group. 

The distribution of KSI casualty by age group is similar to previous years for Wales.

Figure 12: KSI casualties per 100,000 population, by age group, 2025

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Description of figure 12: the bar chart shows the number of KSI casualties per 100,000 population in Wales in 2024 by age group. Young people (aged 16 to 24) had the highest rate of casualties at 80 per 100,000 population. 

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figures 13 and 14 show casualties as a rate per 100,000 people in the population (based on 2024 mid-year population estimates), by age group and road user type. These rates do not necessarily reflect the risk per trip or per kilometre travelled because there may be differences in the number of road users in each category by age.

• Young people are the most likely age group to be car user casualties (169 per 100,000), motorcycle casualties (45 per 100,000) and pedal cycling casualties (17 per 100,000).
• Children (aged 0 to 15) were the most at risk pedestrians in 2025 with a casualty rate of 18 per 100,000, followed by people aged 16 to 24 (17 per 100,000).

Figure 13: casualty rates by age group for car, taxi and minibus users, 2025

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Description of figure 13: the column chart shows the rate of casualties per 100,000 people in the population, by age group, for ‘car, taxi and minibus’ road users in 2025. Young people (aged 16 to 24) reported the highest rate with 169 casualties per 100,000.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 14: casualty rates by age group by motorcycle, pedal cyclist, and pedestrian road users, 2025 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 14: the column chart shows the rate of casualties per 100,000 people in the population, by age group, for motorcycle, pedal cycle and pedestrian road users in 2025. For motorcycle users, young people (aged 16 to 24) reported the highest rate with 45 casualties per 100,000 population.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

[Note 1] Motorcycle: includes mopeds, motor scooters, motorcycles and combinations

We can also look at exposure to risk, expressed as the number of casualties per billion vehicle kilometres travelled. The rates in this section and in table 1 are calculated by dividing, for each road user type, the number of casualties reported by the corresponding estimate of traffic volume in 2025. Road traffic estimates for Wales are released by the DfT as part of their Road traffic statistics collection.

This shows that for the equivalent distance travelled:

• although car users account for the vast majority of casualties, the relative risk for motorcyclists and pedal cyclists is much higher
• in 2025, motorcyclists were 25 times more likely than car and taxi occupants to be casualties and 63 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured
• pedal cyclists were 15 times more likely than car and taxi occupants to be casualties and were 21 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured

Description of table 1: the table shows the rate of casualties per billion vehicle kilometres of road traffic volume, by road user type and severity, in 2025.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government. Road traffic estimates, Department for Transport

[Note 1] Total may not add up to individual numbers due to rounding of figures.

The sections below consider vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians) as well as looking at young person casualties in more detail.

Other detailed information on police reported road casualties, such as local authority breakdowns, can be accessed from the accompanying Road collision dashboard and StatsWales tables: road.

Main points

There were 518 motorcycle casualties reported by the police in 2025, representing 13% of all casualties in Wales.

Of these 518 casualties, 294 were KSI and 224 were slightly injured. The number of KSI and slight casualties are 22% higher and 8% lower than in 2024 respectively. The number of KSI casualties reported since 2023 will be impacted by Dyfed Powys police force migrating to injury-based reporting in May 2023 and South Wales police force migrating in November 2025. Further information is provided in the accompanying quality report.

The number of motorcycle casualties increased by 7% compared to 2024. The total number of motorcycle casualties has been generally declining over time (figure 15).

The day of the week with the greatest number of motorcycle casualties was Saturday in 2025 (19% of all motorcycle casualties).

Figure 15: motorcycle casualties by severity, 2005 to 2025

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Description of figure 15: the line chart shows the trends in motorcycle casualties by severity between 2005 and 2025. The total number of motorcycle casualties has been generally declining over time.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Main points

• Pedal cycle casualties in 2025 increased by 39% compared to the previous year but only increased by 2% compared to 2023, with 2024 pedal cycle casualties being unusually low. This shows the number of annual cyclist casualties can be volatile, so short term changes should be interpreted with caution.
• There were 303 pedal cycle casualties in 2025 (figure 16), representing 7% of all casualties in Wales; of these casualties, 91 were KSI casualties and 212 were slightly injured.
• In 2025, the vast majority of pedal cyclist casualties were male, accounting for 87% of the total.
• 66% of all pedal cycle casualties occurred at junctions.

Figure 16: pedal cyclist casualties by severity, 2005 to 2025

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Description of figure 16: the line chart shows the number of pedal cycle casualties between 2005 and 2025. In 2025, pedal casualties increased by 39% compared to the previous year.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

There was a significant fall in the number of pedal cyclist casualties from the late 1980s onwards, with the lowest total reported in 2009 before increasing between 2010 and 2014 and decreasing since. The number of KSI casualties reported has remained broadly the same over the whole time period.

Main points

• In 2025 there were 452 pedestrian casualties, representing 11% of all casualties in Wales; of these casualties, 13 pedestrians were killed, 150 were seriously injured and 289 were slightly injured.
• The total number of pedestrian casualties decreased by 5% compared to the previous year.
• In 2025, over half of pedestrian casualties were male, accounting for 57% of casualties. 

Figure 17: pedestrian casualties by severity, 2005 to 2025

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Description of figure 17: the line chart shows a time series of pedestrian casualties by severity in Wales between 2005 and 2025. There has been a decrease in all severities overtime.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Figure 18: pedestrian casualties by age group, 2024 to 2025

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Description of figure 18: the column chart shows a comparison of pedestrian casualties by age group in Wales in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, there were more pedestrian casualties aged 45 to 69 (26% of all pedestrian casualties), than any other age group.

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

Main points

• In 2025, there were 896 road casualties aged 16 to 24 in Wales, a slight increase compared with 2024. 269 casualties aged 16 to 24 were KSI.
• Young people are disproportionately more likely to be casualties in road collisions. They make up 11% of the population (based on 2024 population estimates) but 22% of all casualties on the roads in 2025. In particular, young people accounted for 29% of all motorcycle casualties, much higher than the 11% population share.
• In 2025, 66% of young person casualties were male and 34% were female.
• Males aged 16 to 24 are more likely than females to be casualties across all road user categories except for pedestrians. For motorcyclists, there were 5 times as many young male casualties as young females (figure 19).
• The majority of young person casualties (64%) were in the car, taxi and minibus road user category.

Figure 19: road casualties aged 16 to 24 by sex and road user type, 2025

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Description of figure 19: the column chart shows a comparison of the number of young person casualties by sex and road user type in 2025. The majority of casualties were ‘car, taxi and minibus’ users (64%).

Source: Police recorded road collisions, Welsh Government

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 2025, a total of 2,262 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 20 shows the most common individual RSFs judged to be either possible or very likely causes for KSI collisions in 2025. The 3 most common factors were:

• ineffective observation by either the driver, rider or pedestrian (used 439 times)
• the driver or rider being aggressive, dangerous or reckless (used 271 times)
• the driver or rider travelling too fast for conditions (including loss of control or swerving) (used 261 times)

Figure 20: most common causes of KSI collisions, 2025

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Description of figure 20: the bar chart shows the number of times each of the most commonly recorded RSFs were recorded for KSI collisions in 2025 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 21 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 21 may sum to more than 100%. The 3 RSF sections with the largest number of KSI collisions were:

• behaviour or inexperience (59% of KSI collisions)
• speed related (49% of KSI collisions)
• distraction or impairment (31% of KSI collisions)

Figure 21: proportion of KSI collisions with RSFs assigned, by RSF section, Wales, 2025

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Description of figure 21: 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

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 the Office for Statistics Regulation (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 OSR. The 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 for Statistics (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 18/2026

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