London borough · England

Road risk in Barnet

Barnet ranks 59 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 59.9/100ONS code E09000003

Police recorded 782 injury collisions in Barnet in 2025, hurting 904 people, of whom 117 were killed or seriously injured and 5 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 114.1 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 42% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 782 in 2025
People hurt: 904 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 117
Killed: 5
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 114.1 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 119 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 120 (recorded: 117)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 123.3 a year (recorded: 119)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 28.7 — rank 137
Population: 408,087
Risk score: 59.9/100 — rank 59 of 192

Compiled by Stephen Hall, Data lead, Swift Assist. Source: DfT STATS19 and DfT road traffic estimates (2025), OGL v3. Updated 2026-10-08.

Direction of travel

Five years of collisions in Barnet

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 9.5%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 887 collisions.

Collisions per year in Barnet

2025: 782 (up 0.6% on the year before) · peak 887 in 2022 · -9.5% across the period

Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.

Two ways of measuring

Barnet looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Barnet ranks 137. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 59 — a difference of 78 places.

That gap is the signature of a place that absorbs other people’s traffic. Relative to the volume its roads carry, the harm done here is worse than the resident population suggests, which is the pattern you would expect where a trunk route, a commuter corridor or a visitor economy brings in drivers who are not counted in the denominator everyone else uses. Neither number is the true one. Which you should use depends on whether you are asking how safe it is to live somewhere or how safe it is to drive there.

Vehicle crime · year ending June 2026

Vehicle crime in Barnet

8.72

offences per 1,000 residents

3,533

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Barnet recorded 8.72 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 3,533 offences and a population of 405,100 (ONS mid-2024), both taken from the same ONS release. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables, year ending June 2026; police recorded crime collected by the Home Office.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Barnet

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 782 collisions in Barnet, the three groups appear 451 times between them — an involvement rate of 57.7%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	162	20.7%
Cyclists	106	13.6%
Motorcyclists	183	23.4%

A single collision can involve more than one of these groups and is then counted in each row, so the rows do not add up to a share of the total.

Darkness, weather and the time of year

When collisions happen in Barnet

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Barnet’s own shares over 2,397 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Barnet	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	31.1%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	1.3%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	18.6%	24.5%	below the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	0.5%	1.4%	a small fraction of the national figure

On the darkness share, Barnet ranks 37 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Barnet run 0.5% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 641 collisions against 638.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Barnet’s collisions — not that its roads are more dangerous overall. Read it alongside the casualties-per-mile-driven figure above.
Condition is recorded, not tested. The officer records the surface and light level at the scene. It is an observation, not a measurement, and it is not a finding that the condition caused the collision.
Exposure is not controlled for. Fewer people travel at 3am than at 3pm, so a collision in darkness is drawn from a smaller pool of journeys. Without hourly traffic counts, these shares describe when collisions happen rather than how risky an hour is.

Every authority compared on the same measures: winter road risk across Britain.

Benchmark

Barnet against similar authorities

A national rank compares Barnet with places that may be nothing like it. This is the comparison a council actually uses: its statistical nearest neighbours — the authorities ONS identifies as most similar on population, economy and demography, restricted to the same tier, so counties are compared with counties. Within this group Barnet is 9 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 146.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Haringey	331.5	64.1	38
Croydon	181.7	68.2	24
Brent	169.1	69	21
Ealing	156.1	62.6	45
Waltham Forest	146.7	62.3	46
Harrow	142.8	70.9	13
Redbridge	135.1	58	67
Barnet (this page)	114.1	59.9	59
Hillingdon	65.9	39	141

Peer group: ONS statistical nearest neighbours, Open Government Licence v3. ONS notes the grouping is a snapshot that is not comparable with earlier editions, and is not a judgement about any authority’s performance. The road figures against it are ours.

National position

Barnet against its closest comparators

Barnet sits 59 of 192 nationally, and 54 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
57	Leeds	60.1	111.2
58	Greenwich	60	145.5
59	Barnet (this page)	59.9	114.1
60	Bromley	59.9	122.8
61	Highland	59.5	91.8

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Barnet, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Barnet?

In the latest official DfT figures, 782 road collisions in Barnet injured or killed 904 people, 117 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 114.1 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Barnet 59 of 192 authorities on our combined score, where 1 is the highest risk. The score weighs that rate alongside who is being hurt, the five-year trend and how often a serious collision proves fatal, so the rank is not the rate alone.

Are road casualties in Barnet rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Barnet were down 9.5%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 887 collisions. Year-to-year movement in a single authority is noisy, so the five-year direction carries more than any single year's change.

Who is being hurt on Barnet's roads?

In Barnet there were 162 collisions involving pedestrians, 106 involving cyclists and 183 involving motorcyclists, out of 782 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 57.7%, though a collision involving two of those groups is counted in both figures, so it is a comparable index rather than a clean share.

Who is responsible for road safety in Barnet?

Barnet is a london borough, and is the highway authority for its own roads. That means it sets local speed limits, designs junctions and crossings, and decides safety scheme spending. Motorways and most trunk roads are managed separately by National Highways in England, Transport Scotland, or the Welsh Government, so the worst road in an area is often not the council's to change. Enforcement sits with the local police force.

Where does this data come from?

DfT STATS19, the record police complete at the scene of every injury collision, published annually under the Open Government Licence, combined with DfT's own road traffic estimates for the mileage denominator. Collision, casualty and KSI counts on this page are for 2025; only the trend compares 2021–2025. STATS19 counts collisions police attended and recorded, so collisions never reported do not appear, and under-reporting is known to be worst for cyclists and for slight injuries.

What this means for you

What actually changes the odds in Barnet

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Barnet’s own figures above, each with the number that prompted it. Every guide explains how the thing works before it suggests buying anything, and most cost less than a third of a typical insurance excess.

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 23% of Barnet's collisions, and bikes are also lifted rather than ridden away. An alarmed disc lock covers the theft half for about £30.

How it works →

Dashcam (parking mode)

£50–£150

21% of collisions here involve a pedestrian, and those are the cases most often argued over. Footage removes the argument.

How it works →

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