Welsh principal area · Wales

Road risk in Rhondda Cynon Taf

Rhondda Cynon Taf ranks 185 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Lowest riskRisk score 23.7/100ONS code W06000016

Police recorded 146 injury collisions in Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2025, hurting 207 people, of whom 30 were killed or seriously injured and 5 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 32.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 59% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 146 in 2025
People hurt: 207 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 30
Killed: 5
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 32.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 31.3 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 41.2 (recorded: 30)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 47.1 a year (recorded: 31.3)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 12.4 — rank 186
Population: 241,015
Risk score: 23.7/100 — rank 185 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 23.2%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 197 collisions.

Collisions per year in Rhondda Cynon Taf

2025: 146 (up 1.4% on the year before) · peak 197 in 2022 · -23.2% across the period

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

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Rhondda Cynon Taf

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 146 collisions in Rhondda Cynon Taf, the three groups appear 61 times between them — an involvement rate of 41.8%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	36	24.7%
Cyclists	11	7.5%
Motorcyclists	14	9.6%

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.

Darkness, weather and the time of year

When collisions happen in Rhondda Cynon Taf

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Rhondda Cynon Taf’s own shares over 475 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Rhondda Cynon Taf	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	29.5%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	9.9%	6.3%	well above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	31.2%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.1%	1.4%	below the national figure

On the darkness share, Rhondda Cynon Taf ranks 63 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Rhondda Cynon Taf run 15.2% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 117 collisions against 138.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Rhondda Cynon Taf’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

Rhondda Cynon Taf against similar authorities

A national rank compares Rhondda Cynon Taf 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf is 8 of 8 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 88.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Kingston upon Hull, City of	201	80.6	2
Rotherham	93.7	56	72
Blaenau Gwent	92.8	53	85
Torfaen	89.3	58.9	64
Caerphilly	88.1	39.5	138
Plymouth	73.1	49.7	99
South Tyneside	67.2	54.4	77
Rhondda Cynon Taf (this page)	32.8	23.7	185

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

Rhondda Cynon Taf against its closest comparators

Rhondda Cynon Taf sits 185 of 192 nationally, and 17 of 18 within Wales. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
183	Solihull	24.5	47.7
184	Gateshead	24	54.3
185	Rhondda Cynon Taf (this page)	23.7	32.8
186	Warrington	23	47.4
187	Bury	22.6	51.8

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Rhondda Cynon Taf, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Rhondda Cynon Taf?

In the latest official DfT figures, 146 road collisions in Rhondda Cynon Taf injured or killed 207 people, 30 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 32.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Rhondda Cynon Taf 185 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Rhondda Cynon Taf were down 23.2%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 197 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf's roads?

In Rhondda Cynon Taf there were 36 collisions involving pedestrians, 11 involving cyclists and 14 involving motorcyclists, out of 146 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 41.8%, 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf?

Rhondda Cynon Taf is a welsh principal area, 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 Rhondda Cynon Taf

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

Dashcam (parking mode)

£50–£150

25% 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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