Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Torbay

Torbay ranks 66 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 58.1/100ONS code E06000027

Police recorded 172 injury collisions in Torbay in 2025, hurting 204 people, of whom 31 were killed or seriously injured and 4 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 97.1 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 21% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 172 in 2025
People hurt: 204 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 31
Killed: 4
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 97.1 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 38.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 33 (recorded: 31)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 41.3 a year (recorded: 38.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 22.2 — rank 172
Population: 139,486
Risk score: 58.1/100 — rank 66 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 Torbay

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 25.2%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 230 collisions.

Collisions per year in Torbay

2025: 172 (up 4.2% on the year before) · peak 230 in 2021 · -25.2% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Torbay looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Torbay ranks 172. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 66 — a difference of 106 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 Torbay

3.03

offences per 1,000 residents

425

offences recorded, 12 months

179

of 287 areas, worst first

Torbay recorded 3.03 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 425 offences and a population of 140,100 (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 Torbay

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 172 collisions in Torbay, the three groups appear 92 times between them — an involvement rate of 53.5%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	40	23.3%
Cyclists	18	10.5%
Motorcyclists	34	19.8%

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 Torbay

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Torbay’s own shares over 527 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Torbay	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	26.9%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	2.5%	6.3%	a small fraction of 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.	0.6%	1.4%	well below the national figure

On the darkness share, Torbay ranks 120 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Torbay run 12.3% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 137 collisions against 122.

What this does not tell you

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

Torbay against similar authorities

A national rank compares Torbay 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 Torbay is 6 of 10 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 102.3.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Blackpool	316.4	59.4	62
Southend-on-Sea	200.4	82.8	1
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	137.1	68.6	22
Wirral	107.4	54.8	75
Torbay (this page)	97.1	58.1	66
Darlington	79.2	52.2	89
Plymouth	73.1	49.7	99
Conwy	58.4	38.1	148
Gateshead	54.3	24	184

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

Torbay against its closest comparators

Torbay sits 66 of 192 nationally, and 59 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
64	Torfaen	58.9	89.3
65	Medway	58.5	137.6
66	Torbay (this page)	58.1	97.1
67	Redbridge	58	135.1
68	Enfield	57.9	103.9

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Torbay, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Torbay?

In the latest official DfT figures, 172 road collisions in Torbay injured or killed 204 people, 31 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 97.1 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Torbay 66 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 Torbay rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Torbay were down 25.2%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 230 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 Torbay's roads?

In Torbay there were 40 collisions involving pedestrians, 18 involving cyclists and 34 involving motorcyclists, out of 172 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 53.5%, 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 Torbay?

Torbay 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 Torbay

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Torbay’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 20% of Torbay'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

23% 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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