London borough · England

Road risk in Havering

Havering ranks 112 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 47.8/100ONS code E09000016

Police recorded 500 injury collisions in Havering in 2025, hurting 606 people, of whom 72 were killed or seriously injured and 6 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 69.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 13% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 500 in 2025
People hurt: 606 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 72
Killed: 6
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 69.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 74.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 76 (recorded: 72)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 80 a year (recorded: 74.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 25.6 — rank 161
Population: 280,787
Risk score: 47.8/100 — rank 112 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 Havering

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 3.7%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 559 collisions.

Collisions per year in Havering

2025: 500 (down 10.6% on the year before) · peak 559 in 2024 · -3.7% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Havering looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Havering ranks 161. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 112 — a difference of 49 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 Havering

7.54

offences per 1,000 residents

2,084

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Havering recorded 7.54 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 2,084 offences and a population of 276,300 (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 Havering

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 500 collisions in Havering, the three groups appear 231 times between them — an involvement rate of 46.2%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	100	20.0%
Cyclists	42	8.4%
Motorcyclists	89	17.8%

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 Havering

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Havering’s own shares over 1,555 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Havering	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	29.6%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	2.3%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	19%	24.5%	below the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1%	1.4%	below the national figure

On the darkness share, Havering ranks 60 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Havering run 1% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 392 collisions against 388.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Havering’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

Havering against similar authorities

A national rank compares Havering 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 Havering is 5 of 9 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 69.8.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Medway	137.6	58.5	65
Bexley	123	53	84
Bromley	122.8	59.9	60
Bedford	75.9	55.9	73
Havering (this page)	69.8	47.8	112
Stockport	58.6	37.3	153
Thurrock	56.7	26.6	181
Solihull	47.7	24.5	183
Buckinghamshire	41.8	38.8	143

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

Havering against its closest comparators

Havering sits 112 of 192 nationally, and 94 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
110	Slough	48.1	72.6
111	Essex	48	73.3
112	Havering (this page)	47.8	69.8
113	North Lincolnshire	47.7	83.6
114	Ceredigion	47.5	150.9

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Havering, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Havering?

In the latest official DfT figures, 500 road collisions in Havering injured or killed 606 people, 72 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 69.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Havering 112 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 Havering rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Havering were down 3.7%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 559 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 Havering's roads?

In Havering there were 100 collisions involving pedestrians, 42 involving cyclists and 89 involving motorcyclists, out of 500 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 46.2%, 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 Havering?

Havering 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 Havering

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Havering’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 18% of Havering'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

20% 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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