Road risk in Shetland Islands
The official road casualty record for Shetland Islands, from DfT STATS19.
Police recorded 8 injury collisions in Shetland Islands in 2025, hurting 11 people, of whom 4 were killed or seriously injured.
Not ranked. Shetland Islands is held out of our national tablebecause it recorded 4 killed or seriously injured, below the 20 needed for the derived percentages to mean anything. Every figure here is the real recorded number. At this size the derived percentages describe chance more than they describe the place, so there is no rank attached to them. How the floors work.
- Collisions
- 8 in 2025
- People hurt
- 11 casualties
- Killed or seriously injured
- 4
- Killed
- 0
- KSI per billion vehicle miles
- 45.2 (median 80.5)
- KSI, three-year average
- 6 a year
- Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025
- 4 (recorded: 4)
- Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average
- 6.7 a year (recorded: 6)
- KSI per 100,000 residents
- 17.6
- Population
- 22,710
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 Shetland Islands
Shetland Islands 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 Shetland Islands
2025: 8 (down 33.3% on the year before) · peak 18 in 2023 · 0% across the period
Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.
Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Shetland Islands
These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 8 collisions in Shetland Islands, the three groups appear 3 times between them — an involvement rate of 37.5%.
| Road user | Collisions | Share of all collisions |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 1 | 12.5% |
| Cyclists | 1 | 12.5% |
| Motorcyclists | 1 | 12.5% |
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 Shetland Islands
DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Shetland Islands’s own shares over 38 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.
| Share of collisions | Shetland Islands | National | How it reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit. | 42.1% | 28.7% | well above the national figure |
| In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one. | 23.7% | 6.3% | more than three times the national figure |
| On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene. | 34.2% | 24.5% | well above the national figure |
| On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities. | 13.2% | 1.4% | more than three times the national figure |
The winter effect. Collisions in Shetland Islands run 28.6% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 10 collisions against 14.
What this does not tell you
- A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Shetland Islands’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.
Road risk in Shetland Islands, answered
How dangerous are the roads in Shetland Islands?
In the latest official DfT figures, 8 road collisions in Shetland Islands injured or killed 11 people, 4 of them killed or seriously injured. Shetland Islands is not ranked in our national table because it recorded 4 killed or seriously injured, below the 20 needed for the derived percentages to mean anything.
Are road casualties in Shetland Islands rising or falling?
Shetland Islands 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 Shetland Islands's roads?
In Shetland Islands there were 1 collisions involving pedestrians, 1 involving cyclists and 1 involving motorcyclists, out of 8 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 37.5%, 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 Shetland Islands?
Shetland Islands is a scottish 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 actually changes the odds in Shetland Islands
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Shetland Islands’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.
We are a data business, not a retailer: these link to our guides, which link on to retailers. Some of those links earn us a small commission at no cost to you, and we hold no stock and take no payment for placement. All security guides.
More on Shetland Islands and UK road risk
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