Metropolitan borough · England

Road risk in Trafford

Trafford ranks 144 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 38.6/100ONS code E08000009

Police recorded 188 injury collisions in Trafford in 2025, hurting 235 people, of whom 54 were killed or seriously injured and 3 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58.7 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 27% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 188 in 2025
People hurt: 235 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 54
Killed: 3
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 58.7 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 55.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 57 (recorded: 54)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 58.7 a year (recorded: 55.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 22.4 — rank 171
Population: 240,981
Risk score: 38.6/100 — rank 144 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 Trafford

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 18.6%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 231 collisions.

Collisions per year in Trafford

2025: 188 (down 1.1% on the year before) · peak 231 in 2021 · -18.6% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Trafford looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Trafford ranks 171. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 144 — a difference of 27 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 Trafford

4.16

offences per 1,000 residents

1,002

offences recorded, 12 months

123

of 287 areas, worst first

Trafford recorded 4.16 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 1,002 offences and a population of 241,000 (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 Trafford

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 188 collisions in Trafford, the three groups appear 122 times between them — an involvement rate of 64.9%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	51	27.1%
Cyclists	61	32.4%
Motorcyclists	10	5.3%

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 Trafford

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Trafford’s own shares over 552 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Trafford	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	27.2%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	1.4%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	30.7%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	0.4%	1.4%	a small fraction of the national figure

On the darkness share, Trafford ranks 113 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Trafford run 40% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 161 collisions against 115.

What this does not tell you

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

Trafford against similar authorities

A national rank compares Trafford 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 Trafford is 2 of 8 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 47.6.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Sutton	152.8	61.9	50
Trafford (this page)	58.7	38.6	144
Stockport	58.6	37.3	153
Solihull	47.7	24.5	183
Warrington	47.4	23	186
Buckinghamshire	41.8	38.8	143
Windsor and Maidenhead	38.9	28.8	171
West Berkshire	33.9	34.6	158

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

Trafford against its closest comparators

Trafford sits 144 of 192 nationally, and 118 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
142	Fife	38.9	67.1
143	Buckinghamshire	38.8	41.8
144	Trafford (this page)	38.6	58.7
145	Central Bedfordshire	38.3	64.2
146	Cheshire East	38.2	58.4

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Trafford, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Trafford?

In the latest official DfT figures, 188 road collisions in Trafford injured or killed 235 people, 54 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 58.7 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Trafford 144 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 Trafford rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Trafford were down 18.6%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 231 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 Trafford's roads?

In Trafford there were 51 collisions involving pedestrians, 61 involving cyclists and 10 involving motorcyclists, out of 188 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 64.9%, 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 Trafford?

Trafford is a metropolitan borough, 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 Trafford

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

32% of collisions in Trafford involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.

How it works →

Dashcam (parking mode)

£50–£150

27% 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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