London borough · England

Road risk in Hillingdon

Hillingdon ranks 141 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 39/100ONS code E09000017

Police recorded 637 injury collisions in Hillingdon in 2025, hurting 785 people, of whom 105 were killed or seriously injured. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 65.9 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 18% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 637 in 2025
People hurt: 785 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 105
Killed: 0
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 65.9 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 97.3 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 113 (recorded: 105)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 100.3 a year (recorded: 97.3)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 32.1 — rank 120
Population: 326,671
Risk score: 39/100 — rank 141 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 Hillingdon

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 9.6%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 687 collisions.

Collisions per year in Hillingdon

2025: 637 (up 2.1% on the year before) · peak 687 in 2022 · +9.6% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Hillingdon looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Hillingdon ranks 120. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 141 — a difference of 21 places.

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

10.52

offences per 1,000 residents

3,464

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Hillingdon recorded 10.52 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 3,464 offences and a population of 329,200 (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 Hillingdon

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 637 collisions in Hillingdon, the three groups appear 288 times between them — an involvement rate of 45.2%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	130	20.4%
Cyclists	62	9.7%
Motorcyclists	96	15.1%

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 Hillingdon

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Hillingdon’s own shares over 1,892 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Hillingdon	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	33.3%	28.7%	above the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	1.6%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	21.4%	24.5%	below the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.2%	1.4%	below the national figure

On the darkness share, Hillingdon ranks 14 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Hillingdon run 5.3% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 513 collisions against 487.

What this does not tell you

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

Hillingdon against similar authorities

A national rank compares Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon is 11 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 142.8.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Ealing	156.1	62.6	45
Sutton	152.8	61.9	50
Greenwich	145.5	60	58
Barking and Dagenham	144.1	61.4	51
Harrow	142.8	70.9	13
Redbridge	135.1	58	67
Hounslow	133.6	66	31
Coventry	75.8	48.8	103
Hillingdon (this page)	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

Hillingdon against its closest comparators

Hillingdon sits 141 of 192 nationally, and 116 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
139	Bolton	39.3	79.4
140	Cornwall	39.2	65.8
141	Hillingdon (this page)	39	65.9
142	Fife	38.9	67.1
143	Buckinghamshire	38.8	41.8

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Hillingdon, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Hillingdon?

In the latest official DfT figures, 637 road collisions in Hillingdon injured or killed 785 people, 105 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 65.9 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Hillingdon 141 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 Hillingdon rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Hillingdon were up 9.6%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 687 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 Hillingdon's roads?

In Hillingdon there were 130 collisions involving pedestrians, 62 involving cyclists and 96 involving motorcyclists, out of 637 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 45.2%, 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 Hillingdon?

Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Hillingdon’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 15% of Hillingdon'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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