Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Telford and Wrekin

Telford and Wrekin ranks 191 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Lowest riskRisk score 14.9/100ONS code E06000020

Police recorded 150 injury collisions in Telford and Wrekin in 2025, hurting 190 people, of whom 40 were killed or seriously injured and 1 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 47.8 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 41% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 150 in 2025
People hurt: 190 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 40
Killed: 1
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 47.8 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 41.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 42 (recorded: 40)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 46 a year (recorded: 41.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 20.1 — rank 179
Population: 199,378
Risk score: 14.9/100 — rank 191 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 Telford and Wrekin

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 11.8%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 192 collisions.

Collisions per year in Telford and Wrekin

2025: 150 (up 16.3% on the year before) · peak 192 in 2022 · -11.8% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Telford and Wrekin looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Telford and Wrekin ranks 179. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 191 — a difference of 12 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Telford and Wrekin does less harm than its casualty count per resident implies. Places with heavy local travel and few through routes tend to look worse per head than the volume of driving warrants. 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 Telford and Wrekin

2.05

offences per 1,000 residents

402

offences recorded, 12 months

240

of 287 areas, worst first

Telford and Wrekin recorded 2.05 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 402 offences and a population of 196,000 (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 Telford and Wrekin

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 150 collisions in Telford and Wrekin, the three groups appear 55 times between them — an involvement rate of 36.7%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	20	13.3%
Cyclists	12	8.0%
Motorcyclists	23	15.3%

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 Telford and Wrekin

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Telford and Wrekin’s own shares over 422 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Telford and Wrekin	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	23.9%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	2.6%	6.3%	well below the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	27.3%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.7%	1.4%	above the national figure

On the darkness share, Telford and Wrekin ranks 174 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Telford and Wrekin run 21.6% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 124 collisions against 102.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Telford and Wrekin’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

Telford and Wrekin against similar authorities

A national rank compares Telford and Wrekin 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 Telford and Wrekin is 6 of 7 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 58.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Wakefield	103.4	60.8	54
Darlington	79.2	52.2	89
Sunderland	68.6	47.1	117
North Northamptonshire	58	41.1	133
Newport	49.2	32.6	166
Telford and Wrekin (this page)	47.8	14.9	191
West Northamptonshire	37.5	33.3	164

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

Telford and Wrekin against its closest comparators

Telford and Wrekin sits 191 of 192 nationally, and 148 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
189	Milton Keynes	19.1	38.8
190	Neath Port Talbot	18.5	25.4
191	Telford and Wrekin (this page)	14.9	47.8
192	East Lothian	14.9	41.8

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Telford and Wrekin, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Telford and Wrekin?

In the latest official DfT figures, 150 road collisions in Telford and Wrekin injured or killed 190 people, 40 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 47.8 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Telford and Wrekin 191 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 Telford and Wrekin rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Telford and Wrekin were down 11.8%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 192 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 Telford and Wrekin's roads?

In Telford and Wrekin there were 20 collisions involving pedestrians, 12 involving cyclists and 23 involving motorcyclists, out of 150 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 36.7%, 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 Telford and Wrekin?

Telford and Wrekin 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 Telford and Wrekin

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Telford and Wrekin’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 15% of Telford and Wrekin'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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