County council · England

Road risk in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire ranks 125 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 44.6/100ONS code E10000025

Police recorded 861 injury collisions in Oxfordshire in 2025, hurting 1,040 people, of whom 202 were killed or seriously injured and 18 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 53.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 33% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 861 in 2025
People hurt: 1,040 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 202
Killed: 18
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 53.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 213.6 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 239.3 (recorded: 202)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 258.6 a year (recorded: 213.6)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 26.2 — rank 158
Population: 769,831
Risk score: 44.6/100 — rank 125 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 Oxfordshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 957 collisions.

Collisions per year in Oxfordshire

2025: 861 (down 1.7% on the year before) · peak 957 in 2022 · -1.1% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Oxfordshire looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Oxfordshire ranks 158. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 125 — a difference of 33 places.

That gap is the signature of a place that absorbs other people’s traffic. Relative to the volume its roads carry, the harm done here is worse than the resident population suggests, which is the pattern you would expect where a trunk route, a commuter corridor or a visitor economy brings in drivers who are not counted in the denominator everyone else uses. 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 Oxfordshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 861 collisions in Oxfordshire, the three groups appear 468 times between them — an involvement rate of 54.4%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	106	12.3%
Cyclists	212	24.6%
Motorcyclists	150	17.4%

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 Oxfordshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Oxfordshire’s own shares over 2,569 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Oxfordshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	27.7%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	11.2%	6.3%	well above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	24.1%	24.5%	close to the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.5%	1.4%	close to the national figure

On the darkness share, Oxfordshire ranks 101 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Oxfordshire run 3.2% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 687 collisions against 666.

What this does not tell you

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

Inside the county

Where the casualties fall across Oxfordshire’s districts

Oxfordshire is the highway authority, but the collisions are spread unevenly across the 5 districts within it.

District	Collisions	Casualties	KSI
Oxford	244	258	31
Cherwell	197	259	57
Vale of White Horse	147	170	39
South Oxfordshire	142	175	29
West Oxfordshire	131	178	46

Benchmark

Oxfordshire against similar authorities

ONS does name statistical neighbours for Oxfordshire, 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 Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire is 20 of 21 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 67.5.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Kent	89.6	43.8	129
Herefordshire, County of	77.7	44.2	127
Wigan	75	46	121
South Lanarkshire	71.9	45.8	122
County Durham	70.3	44.5	126
Bracknell Forest	67.5	44.7	124
Cambridgeshire	63.9	43.9	128
Oxfordshire (this page)	53.8	44.6	125
Aberdeen City	46.1	45.7	123

National position

Oxfordshire against its closest comparators

Oxfordshire sits 125 of 192 nationally, and 102 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
123	Aberdeen City	45.7	46.1
124	Bracknell Forest	44.7	67.5
125	Oxfordshire (this page)	44.6	53.8
126	County Durham	44.5	70.3
127	Herefordshire, County of	44.2	77.7

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Oxfordshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Oxfordshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 861 road collisions in Oxfordshire injured or killed 1,040 people, 202 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 53.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Oxfordshire 125 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 Oxfordshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Oxfordshire were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 957 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 Oxfordshire's roads?

In Oxfordshire there were 106 collisions involving pedestrians, 212 involving cyclists and 150 involving motorcyclists, out of 861 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 54.4%, 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 Oxfordshire?

Oxfordshire is a county 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 Oxfordshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Oxfordshire’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.

Helmet camera

£50–£200

25% of collisions in Oxfordshire involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.

How it works →

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 17% of Oxfordshire'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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