Unitary authority · England

Road risk in North Somerset

North Somerset ranks 118 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 47.1/100ONS code E06000024

Police recorded 285 injury collisions in North Somerset in 2025, hurting 361 people, of whom 100 were killed or seriously injured and 6 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 59.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 26% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 285 in 2025
People hurt: 361 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 100
Killed: 6
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 59.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 67.3 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 108 (recorded: 100)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 98.4 a year (recorded: 67.3)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 44 — rank 54
Population: 227,160
Risk score: 47.1/100 — rank 118 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 Somerset

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 36.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 288 collisions.

Collisions per year in North Somerset

2025: 285 (down 1% on the year before) · peak 288 in 2024 · +36.4% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

North Somerset looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and North Somerset ranks 54. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 118 — a difference of 64 places.

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

3.68

offences per 1,000 residents

826

offences recorded, 12 months

143

of 287 areas, worst first

North Somerset recorded 3.68 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 826 offences and a population of 224,600 (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 North Somerset

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 285 collisions in North Somerset, the three groups appear 126 times between them — an involvement rate of 44.2%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	41	14.4%
Cyclists	42	14.7%
Motorcyclists	43	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 North Somerset

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are North Somerset’s own shares over 836 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	North Somerset	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	26.9%	28.7%	close to 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.	27.2%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.4%	1.4%	close to the national figure

On the darkness share, North Somerset ranks 122 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in North Somerset run 19.1% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 191 collisions against 236.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of North Somerset’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 Somerset against similar authorities

ONS does name statistical neighbours for North Somerset, but most of them are lower-tier districts that we do not publish as authority pages — they are not highway authorities, so their road figures belong to the county above them. Rather than compare against pages that do not exist, these are the authorities nearest to North Somerset in the national table. That is a weaker comparison and we would rather say so than imply a like-for-like match we cannot actually make. Within this group North Somerset is 19 of 21 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 71.9.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Ceredigion	150.9	47.5	114
Dudley	92.5	47.2	116
Derbyshire	79.2	46.5	120
Wigan	75	46	121
South Lanarkshire	71.9	45.8	122
Sunderland	68.6	47.1	117
South Ayrshire	66.2	47.3	115
Dumfries and Galloway	63.5	47.1	119
North Somerset (this page)	59.8	47.1	118

National position

North Somerset against its closest comparators

North Somerset sits 118 of 192 nationally, and 98 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
116	Dudley	47.2	92.5
117	Sunderland	47.1	68.6
118	North Somerset (this page)	47.1	59.8
119	Dumfries and Galloway	47.1	63.5
120	Derbyshire	46.5	79.2

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in North Somerset, answered

How dangerous are the roads in North Somerset?

In the latest official DfT figures, 285 road collisions in North Somerset injured or killed 361 people, 100 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 59.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing North Somerset 118 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 Somerset rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in North Somerset were up 36.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 288 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 Somerset's roads?

In North Somerset there were 41 collisions involving pedestrians, 42 involving cyclists and 43 involving motorcyclists, out of 285 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 44.2%, 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 North Somerset?

North Somerset 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 Somerset

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from North Somerset’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 Somerset'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 Somerset are up 36% 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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