County council · England

Road risk in Warwickshire

Warwickshire ranks 150 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 37.4/100ONS code E10000031

Police recorded 1,082 injury collisions in Warwickshire in 2025, hurting 1,393 people, of whom 284 were killed or seriously injured and 24 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 48.4 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 40% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions
1,082 in 2025
People hurt
1,393 casualties
Killed or seriously injured
284
Killed
24
KSI per billion vehicle miles
48.4 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average
275 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025
310 (recorded: 284)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average
308 a year (recorded: 275)
KSI per 100,000 residents
44.1 — rank 52
Population
644,021
Risk score
37.4/100 — rank 150 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 Warwickshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 26.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 1,092 collisions.

Collisions per year in Warwickshire

2025: 1,082 (down 0.9% on the year before) · peak 1,092 in 2024 · +26.4% across the period

8562021865202299420231,09220241,0822025

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

Two ways of measuring

Warwickshire looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Warwickshire ranks 52. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 150 — a difference of 98 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Warwickshire 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.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Warwickshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 1,082 collisions in Warwickshire, the three groups appear 389 times between them — an involvement rate of 36%.

Road userCollisionsShare of all collisions
Pedestrians13212.2%
Cyclists11710.8%
Motorcyclists14012.9%

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 Warwickshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Warwickshire’s own shares over 3,168 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisionsWarwickshireNationalHow 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.12%6.3%roughly double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.23.9%24.5%close to the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.1.5%1.4%close to the national figure

On the darkness share, Warwickshire ranks 114 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Warwickshire run 1.7% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 826 collisions against 812.

What this does not tell you

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

Inside the county

Where the casualties fall across Warwickshire’s districts

Warwickshire is the highway authority, but the collisions are spread unevenly across the 5 districts within it.

DistrictCollisionsCasualtiesKSI
Stratford-on-Avon27535290
Warwick22226452
North Warwickshire21029350
Rugby20226952
Nuneaton and Bedworth17321540
Benchmark

Warwickshire against similar authorities

ONS does name statistical neighbours for Warwickshire, but most of them are lower-tier districts that we do not publish as authority pages — they are not highway authorities, so their road figures belong to the county above them. Rather than compare against pages that do not exist, these are the authorities nearest to Warwickshire in the national table. That is a weaker comparison and we would rather say so than imply a like-for-like match we cannot actually make. Within this group Warwickshire is 16 of 21 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 58.4.

AuthorityKSI / bn milesScoreNational rank
Doncaster93.637.3152
Walsall80.238.1147
Northumberland71.236.6154
Stockport58.637.3153
Cheshire East58.438.2146
Conwy58.438.1148
Cheshire West and Chester58.138149
Leicestershire50.637.4151
Warwickshire (this page)48.437.4150
National position

Warwickshire against its closest comparators

Warwickshire sits 150 of 192 nationally, and 123 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#AuthorityScoreKSI / bn miles
148Conwy38.158.4
149Cheshire West and Chester3858.1
150Warwickshire (this page)37.448.4
151Leicestershire37.450.6
152Doncaster37.393.6
See all 192 authorities →
Common questions

Road risk in Warwickshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Warwickshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 1,082 road collisions in Warwickshire injured or killed 1,393 people, 284 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 48.4 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Warwickshire 150 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 Warwickshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Warwickshire were up 26.4%, with 2024 the worst year of the period at 1,092 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 Warwickshire's roads?

In Warwickshire there were 132 collisions involving pedestrians, 117 involving cyclists and 140 involving motorcyclists, out of 1,082 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 36%, 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 Warwickshire?

Warwickshire is a county 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 this means for you

What actually changes the odds in Warwickshire

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

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