Scottish council · Scotland

Road risk in Highland

Highland ranks 61 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 59.5/100ONS code S12000017

Police recorded 245 injury collisions in Highland in 2025, hurting 392 people, of whom 125 were killed or seriously injured and 18 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 91.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 14% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 245 in 2025
People hurt: 392 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 125
Killed: 18
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 91.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 150.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 153 (recorded: 125)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 183.3 a year (recorded: 150.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 52.7 — rank 22
Population: 237,260
Risk score: 59.5/100 — rank 61 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 Highland

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 18.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 273 collisions.

Collisions per year in Highland

2025: 245 (down 10.3% on the year before) · peak 273 in 2024 · +18.4% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Highland looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Highland ranks 22. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 61 — a difference of 39 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Highland 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.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Highland

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 245 collisions in Highland, the three groups appear 84 times between them — an involvement rate of 34.3%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	18	7.3%
Cyclists	16	6.5%
Motorcyclists	50	20.4%

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 Highland

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Highland’s own shares over 777 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Highland	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	21.9%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	16.7%	6.3%	more than double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	33.5%	24.5%	well above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	5.4%	1.4%	more than three times the national figure

On the darkness share, Highland ranks 188 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Highland run 38.6% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 159 collisions against 259.

What this does not tell you

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

Highland against similar authorities

A national rank compares Highland 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 Highland is 2 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 71.2.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Argyll and Bute	102.1	54.2	79
Highland (this page)	91.8	59.5	61
Gwynedd	85.3	52.1	91
Cumberland	82	54.5	76
North Yorkshire	77.5	53.6	82
Northumberland	71.2	36.6	154
Cornwall	65.8	39.2	140
Westmorland and Furness	61.8	41.1	134
Perth and Kinross	51.7	34.4	159

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

Highland against its closest comparators

Highland sits 61 of 192 nationally, and 3 of 26 within Scotland. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
59	Barnet	59.9	114.1
60	Bromley	59.9	122.8
61	Highland (this page)	59.5	91.8
62	Blackpool	59.4	316.4
63	East Sussex	59	140.2

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Highland, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Highland?

In the latest official DfT figures, 245 road collisions in Highland injured or killed 392 people, 125 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 91.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Highland 61 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 Highland rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Highland were up 18.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 273 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 Highland's roads?

In Highland there were 18 collisions involving pedestrians, 16 involving cyclists and 50 involving motorcyclists, out of 245 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 34.3%, 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 Highland?

Highland is a scottish council, 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 Highland

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Highland’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 20% of Highland'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

Collisions in Highland are up 18% across the period. A dashcam with parking mode is the cheapest way to keep a disputed claim from becoming a 50/50 split.

How it works →

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