Unitary authority · England

Road risk in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire ranks 82 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 53.6/100ONS code E06000065

Police recorded 1,159 injury collisions in North Yorkshire in 2025, hurting 1,530 people, of whom 331 were killed or seriously injured and 40 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 77.5 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 4% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 1,159 in 2025
People hurt: 1,530 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 331
Killed: 40
Score based on: 80% of the measure — North Yorkshire did not exist for the full trend period
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 77.5 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 306 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 442.7 (recorded: 331)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 428.8 a year (recorded: 306)
Risk score: 53.6/100 — rank 82 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 Yorkshire

North Yorkshire has no comparable five-year change: it did not exist as an authority for the whole period, so there is no earlier figure to measure against. The yearly counts below are real; what is missing is the comparison, and the trend component is left out of its score rather than assumed to be flat.

Collisions per year in North Yorkshire

2025: 1,159 (up 11.1% on the year before) · peak 1,159 in 2025 · no full-period comparison, the series does not start above zero

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

Vehicle crime · year ending June 2026

Vehicle crime in North Yorkshire

1.55

offences per 1,000 residents

987

offences recorded, 12 months

261

of 287 areas, worst first

North Yorkshire recorded 1.55 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 987 offences and a population of 635,300 (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 North Yorkshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 1,159 collisions in North Yorkshire, the three groups appear 511 times between them — an involvement rate of 44.1%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	174	15.0%
Cyclists	116	10.0%
Motorcyclists	221	19.1%

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 Yorkshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are North Yorkshire’s own shares over 3,331 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	North Yorkshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	22.4%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	12.7%	6.3%	roughly double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	24.2%	24.5%	close to the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	2.2%	1.4%	well above the national figure

On the darkness share, North Yorkshire ranks 186 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in North Yorkshire run 20.2% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 758 collisions against 950.

What this does not tell you

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

A national rank compares North Yorkshire 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 Yorkshire is 6 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 77.5.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Dorset	92.2	55	74
Highland	91.8	59.5	61
Gwynedd	85.3	52.1	91
Cumberland	82	54.5	76
North Yorkshire (this page)	77.5	53.6	82
Northumberland	71.2	36.6	154
Somerset	67.7	34.1	161
Cornwall	65.8	39.2	140
Westmorland and Furness	61.8	41.1	134

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 Yorkshire against its closest comparators

North Yorkshire sits 82 of 192 nationally, and 71 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
80	East Ayrshire	53.7	60.9
81	Suffolk	53.7	80.7
82	North Yorkshire (this page)	53.6	77.5
83	Gloucestershire	53.2	75.2
84	Bexley	53	123

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in North Yorkshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in North Yorkshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 1,159 road collisions in North Yorkshire injured or killed 1,530 people, 331 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 77.5 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing North Yorkshire 82 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 Yorkshire rising or falling?

North Yorkshire has no comparable five-year trend: it did not exist for the whole period, so there is no earlier figure to measure against. Its collision counts for the years it has existed are on this page, and the trend component is excluded from its score rather than assumed to be flat.

Who is being hurt on North Yorkshire's roads?

In North Yorkshire there were 174 collisions involving pedestrians, 116 involving cyclists and 221 involving motorcyclists, out of 1,159 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 44.1%, 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 Yorkshire?

North Yorkshire 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 Yorkshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from North Yorkshire’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 19% of North Yorkshire'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 →

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