Reported number of collisions

The 2020 and 2021 casualty and collision numbers were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated changes in travel.

Most notably, these changes included the ‘second lockdown’, which ran from 5 January 2021 to April 2021, and incorporated a legal requirement forbidding anyone from leaving their home except for essential purposes.

Figure 1 shows the long-term trend for injury road collisions recorded by the police.

In 2022, there were 4,109 collisions in which someone was killed or injured. This was 5% higher than in 2021 and the third lowest number since records began. There were 154 fatal collisions in 2022, 18 (13%) more than in 2021. In 2022, there were 1,514 serious injury collisions; and 2,441 slight injury collisions.

Figure 1: Number of reported injury road collisions broken down by severity, 1999 – 2022 - as described in text above
Figure 1: Number of reported injury road collisions broken down by severity, 1999 – 2022

Note for Figure 1: Due to changes in the way casualty severity is recorded, figures for the number of serious and slight collisions are not comparable with years prior to 2004.