Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Cheshire West and Chester

Cheshire West and Chester ranks 149 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 38/100ONS code E06000050

Police recorded 522 injury collisions in Cheshire West and Chester in 2025, hurting 670 people, of whom 132 were killed or seriously injured and 9 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58.1 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 28% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 522 in 2025
People hurt: 670 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 132
Killed: 9
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 58.1 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 118.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 144 (recorded: 132)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 152.2 a year (recorded: 118.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 35.3 — rank 97
Population: 373,951
Risk score: 38/100 — rank 149 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 Cheshire West and Chester

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 561 collisions.

Collisions per year in Cheshire West and Chester

2025: 522 (up 2% on the year before) · peak 561 in 2022 · -0.4% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Cheshire West and Chester looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Cheshire West and Chester ranks 97. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 149 — a difference of 52 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Cheshire West and Chester does less harm than its casualty count per resident implies. Places with heavy local travel and few through routes tend to look worse per head than the volume of driving warrants. 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 Cheshire West and Chester

1.44

offences per 1,000 residents

536

offences recorded, 12 months

265

of 287 areas, worst first

Cheshire West and Chester recorded 1.44 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 536 offences and a population of 371,700 (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 Cheshire West and Chester

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 522 collisions in Cheshire West and Chester, the three groups appear 231 times between them — an involvement rate of 44.3%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	66	12.6%
Cyclists	90	17.2%
Motorcyclists	75	14.4%

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 Cheshire West and Chester

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Cheshire West and Chester’s own shares over 1,530 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Cheshire West and Chester	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	23.6%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	8.1%	6.3%	above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	20.1%	24.5%	below the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.9%	1.4%	well above the national figure

On the darkness share, Cheshire West and Chester ranks 177 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Cheshire West and Chester run 11.3% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 368 collisions against 415.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Cheshire West and Chester’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

Cheshire West and Chester against similar authorities

A national rank compares Cheshire West and Chester 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 Cheshire West and Chester is 8 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 58.6.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Medway	137.6	58.5	65
Wiltshire	76.6	50.6	96
East Riding of Yorkshire	75.8	48.5	106
North Somerset	59.8	47.1	118
Cheshire East	58.4	38.2	146
Cheshire West and Chester (this page)	58.1	38	149
Solihull	47.7	24.5	183
West Northamptonshire	37.5	33.3	164
West Berkshire	33.9	34.6	158

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

Cheshire West and Chester against its closest comparators

Cheshire West and Chester sits 149 of 192 nationally, and 122 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
147	Walsall	38.1	80.2
148	Conwy	38.1	58.4
149	Cheshire West and Chester (this page)	38	58.1
150	Warwickshire	37.4	48.4
151	Leicestershire	37.4	50.6

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Cheshire West and Chester, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Cheshire West and Chester?

In the latest official DfT figures, 522 road collisions in Cheshire West and Chester injured or killed 670 people, 132 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58.1 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Cheshire West and Chester 149 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 Cheshire West and Chester rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Cheshire West and Chester were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 561 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 Cheshire West and Chester's roads?

In Cheshire West and Chester there were 66 collisions involving pedestrians, 90 involving cyclists and 75 involving motorcyclists, out of 522 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 44.3%, 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 Cheshire West and Chester?

Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority, 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 Cheshire West and Chester

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Cheshire West and Chester’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.

Helmet camera

£50–£200

17% of collisions in Cheshire West and Chester involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.

How it works →

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 14% of Cheshire West and Chester'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 →

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