Road risk in Reading
Reading ranks 4 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.
Police recorded 250 injury collisions in Reading in 2025, hurting 281 people, of whom 46 were killed or seriously injured and 4 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 121.1 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 50% above the median ranked authority (80.5).
- Collisions
- 250 in 2025
- People hurt
- 281 casualties
- Killed or seriously injured
- 46
- Killed
- 4
- KSI per billion vehicle miles
- 121.1 (median 80.5)
- KSI, three-year average
- 37 a year
- Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025
- 49.8 (recorded: 46)
- Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average
- 43.2 a year (recorded: 37)
- KSI per 100,000 residents
- 25 — rank 163
- Population
- 183,762
- Risk score
- 76.8/100 — rank 4 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.
Five years of collisions in Reading
Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 6.8%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 310 collisions.
Collisions per year in Reading
2025: 250 (down 0.4% on the year before) · peak 310 in 2022 · +6.8% across the period
Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.
Reading looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident
Divide casualties by the people who live here and Reading ranks 163. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 4 — a difference of 159 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.
Vehicle crime · year ending June 2026
Vehicle crime in Reading
4.96
offences per 1,000 residents
907
offences recorded, 12 months
101
of 287 areas, worst first
Reading recorded 4.96 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.
Rate calculated from 907 offences and a population of 182,900 (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.
Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Reading
These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 250 collisions in Reading, the three groups appear 178 times between them — an involvement rate of 71.2%.
| Road user | Collisions | Share of all collisions |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 60 | 24.0% |
| Cyclists | 64 | 25.6% |
| Motorcyclists | 54 | 21.6% |
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.
When collisions happen in Reading
DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Reading’s own shares over 761 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.
| Share of collisions | Reading | National | How it reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit. | 29.8% | 28.7% | close to the national figure |
| In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one. | 0.9% | 6.3% | a small fraction of the national figure |
| On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene. | 22.2% | 24.5% | close to the national figure |
| On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities. | 0.8% | 1.4% | well below the national figure |
On the darkness share, Reading ranks 56 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.
The winter effect. Collisions in Reading run 0% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 187 collisions against 187.
What this does not tell you
- A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Reading’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.
Reading against similar authorities
A national rank compares Reading 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 Reading is 3 of 7 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 111.2.
| Authority | KSI / bn miles | Score | National rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol, City of | 158 | 62 | 48 |
| Ealing | 156.1 | 62.6 | 45 |
| Reading (this page) | 121.1 | 76.8 | 4 |
| Leeds | 111.2 | 60.1 | 57 |
| Coventry | 75.8 | 48.8 | 103 |
| Bracknell Forest | 67.5 | 44.7 | 124 |
| Milton Keynes | 38.8 | 19.1 | 189 |
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.
Reading against its closest comparators
Reading sits 4 of 192 nationally, and 4 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.
| # | Authority | Score | KSI / bn miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Kingston upon Hull, City of | 80.6 | 201 |
| 3 | Nottingham | 79.5 | 169.6 |
| 4 | Reading (this page) | 76.8 | 121.1 |
| 5 | Westminster | 76.5 | 563.5 |
| 6 | Camden | 75 | 386.7 |
Road risk in Reading, answered
How dangerous are the roads in Reading?
In the latest official DfT figures, 250 road collisions in Reading injured or killed 281 people, 46 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 121.1 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Reading 4 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 Reading rising or falling?
Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Reading were up 6.8%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 310 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 Reading's roads?
In Reading there were 60 collisions involving pedestrians, 64 involving cyclists and 54 involving motorcyclists, out of 250 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 71.2%, 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 Reading?
Reading 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 actually changes the odds in Reading
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Reading’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
26% of collisions in Reading 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 22% of Reading'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
24% 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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More on Reading and UK road risk
Where collisions cluster in Reading
The interactive hotspot map, down to individual junctions.
Read more →All 192 British authorities ranked
The full sortable league table, with the method behind it.
Read more →Blackspots that were never fixed
Sites with injury collisions in every one of the last five years.
Read more →UK road risk: the national picture
What the official record says about Britain's roads overall.
Read more →Need this cut differently?
Custom analysis by ward, corridor or junction. Free for campaigns and press.
Read more →Free API
Pull these figures programmatically, with provenance on every endpoint.
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