Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Windsor and Maidenhead

Windsor and Maidenhead ranks 171 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Lowest riskRisk score 28.8/100ONS code E06000040

Police recorded 176 injury collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead in 2025, hurting 213 people, of whom 45 were killed or seriously injured and 1 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 38.9 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 52% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 176 in 2025
People hurt: 213 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 45
Killed: 1
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 38.9 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 38.3 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 47.8 (recorded: 45)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 43.7 a year (recorded: 38.3)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 28.2 — rank 140
Population: 159,776
Risk score: 28.8/100 — rank 171 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 Windsor and Maidenhead

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 195 collisions.

Collisions per year in Windsor and Maidenhead

2025: 176 (up 18.1% on the year before) · peak 195 in 2022 · 0% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Windsor and Maidenhead looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Windsor and Maidenhead ranks 140. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 171 — a difference of 31 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Windsor and Maidenhead 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 Windsor and Maidenhead

5.05

offences per 1,000 residents

802

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Windsor and Maidenhead recorded 5.05 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 802 offences and a population of 158,900 (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 Windsor and Maidenhead

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 176 collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead, the three groups appear 92 times between them — an involvement rate of 52.3%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	30	17.0%
Cyclists	32	18.2%
Motorcyclists	30	17.0%

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 Windsor and Maidenhead

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Windsor and Maidenhead’s own shares over 514 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Windsor and Maidenhead	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	24.4%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	4.9%	6.3%	below the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	26.1%	24.5%	close to the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	0.8%	1.4%	well below the national figure

On the darkness share, Windsor and Maidenhead ranks 171 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead run 8.9% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 133 collisions against 146.

What this does not tell you

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

Windsor and Maidenhead against similar authorities

A national rank compares Windsor and Maidenhead 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 Windsor and Maidenhead is 5 of 5 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 58.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Sutton	152.8	61.9	50
Kingston upon Thames	101.8	49.8	98
Trafford	58.7	38.6	144
Buckinghamshire	41.8	38.8	143
Windsor and Maidenhead (this page)	38.9	28.8	171

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

Windsor and Maidenhead against its closest comparators

Windsor and Maidenhead sits 171 of 192 nationally, and 137 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
169	Rochdale	29.8	62.6
170	Worcestershire	28.9	53
171	Windsor and Maidenhead (this page)	28.8	38.9
172	Middlesbrough	28.8	50.8
173	Hertfordshire	28.3	51.1

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Windsor and Maidenhead, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Windsor and Maidenhead?

In the latest official DfT figures, 176 road collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead injured or killed 213 people, 45 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 38.9 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Windsor and Maidenhead 171 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 Windsor and Maidenhead rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead were broadly flat, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 195 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 Windsor and Maidenhead's roads?

In Windsor and Maidenhead there were 30 collisions involving pedestrians, 32 involving cyclists and 30 involving motorcyclists, out of 176 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 52.3%, 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 Windsor and Maidenhead?

Windsor and Maidenhead 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 Windsor and Maidenhead

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

18% of collisions in Windsor and Maidenhead involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.

How it works →

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 17% of Windsor and Maidenhead'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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