Unitary authority · England

Road risk in North Northamptonshire

North Northamptonshire ranks 133 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 41.1/100ONS code E06000061

Police recorded 557 injury collisions in North Northamptonshire in 2025, hurting 705 people, of whom 161 were killed or seriously injured and 11 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 28% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 557 in 2025
People hurt: 705 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 161
Killed: 11
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 58 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 128.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 184 (recorded: 161)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 135.7 a year (recorded: 128.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 42.4 — rank 64
Population: 379,569
Risk score: 41.1/100 — rank 133 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 North Northamptonshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 31.7%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 557 collisions.

Collisions per year in North Northamptonshire

2025: 557 (up 13.9% on the year before) · peak 557 in 2025 · +31.7% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

North Northamptonshire looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and North Northamptonshire ranks 64. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 133 — a difference of 69 places.

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

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 557 collisions in North Northamptonshire, the three groups appear 210 times between them — an involvement rate of 37.7%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	78	14.0%
Cyclists	50	9.0%
Motorcyclists	82	14.7%

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 North Northamptonshire

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

Share of collisions	North Northamptonshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	28.6%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	9.4%	6.3%	well above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	28.9%	24.5%	above 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, North Northamptonshire ranks 76 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in North Northamptonshire run 3.5% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 410 collisions against 396.

What this does not tell you

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

North Northamptonshire against similar authorities

A national rank compares North Northamptonshire 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 North Northamptonshire is 4 of 7 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 58.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Wakefield	103.4	60.8	54
Darlington	79.2	52.2	89
East Riding of Yorkshire	75.8	48.5	106
North Northamptonshire (this page)	58	41.1	133
Newport	49.2	32.6	166
Telford and Wrekin	47.8	14.9	191
West Northamptonshire	37.5	33.3	164

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

North Northamptonshire against its closest comparators

North Northamptonshire sits 133 of 192 nationally, and 110 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
131	Shropshire	41.9	68.4
132	Hampshire	41.2	62.7
133	North Northamptonshire (this page)	41.1	58
134	Westmorland and Furness	41.1	61.8
135	Scottish Borders	40.8	81.7

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in North Northamptonshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in North Northamptonshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 557 road collisions in North Northamptonshire injured or killed 705 people, 161 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing North Northamptonshire 133 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 North Northamptonshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in North Northamptonshire were up 31.7%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 557 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 North Northamptonshire's roads?

In North Northamptonshire there were 78 collisions involving pedestrians, 50 involving cyclists and 82 involving motorcyclists, out of 557 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 37.7%, 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 North Northamptonshire?

North Northamptonshire 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 North Northamptonshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from North Northamptonshire’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 North Northamptonshire'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 North Northamptonshire are up 32% 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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