Indicator
Deaths and serious injuries by type of road user
Published
27 June 2024
Last updated
11 May 2026
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- In 2024, 93 pedestrians per million people were killed or seriously injured.
- In 2024, per billion miles travelled, 46 people travelling by car were killed or seriously injured, compared with 1,108 cyclists and 1,968 motorcyclists.
Road accidents are a major source of preventable death, serious injury and psychological trauma. Personal safety concerns can also force people to avoid certain areas that are perceived as dangerous, or can prevent them from using certain modes of transport altogether.
This chart shows the rate of people killed or seriously injured on roads in Great Britain, measured per billion miles travelled for different transport modes – and per million people for pedestrians – from 1979 to 2024.
- In 2024, 93 pedestrians per million people were killed or seriously injured. Pedestrian deaths have been on a downward trend since 1984. Since 2004, the rate of serious accidents fell by almost 50%.
- In 2024, 46 people per billion miles travelled were killed or seriously injured when travelling by car. The rate for motorcyclists was over 40 times higher than for cars (1,968 per billion miles), while the rate for cyclists was 24 times higher than for cars (1,108 per billion miles).
- Compared with 1979, the rate of death or serious injury per mile travelled has declined for all user types. This partly reflects successful legislation promoting better safety standards, such as compulsory seat belts, speed limits, better vehicle technology and highway engineering.
- In the past two decades (2004–2024), this downward trend has slowed compared with the previous two decades (1983–2003).
- The largest absolute number of casualties is from car occupants, due to the greater distance travelled by car.
- The figures include accidents reported to the police using the STATS19 reporting system. In some circumstances, there is no obligation to report road accidents to the police, which means that the figures are likely to be underestimated. Estimates based on hospital admissions tend to be higher than the figures reported here.
- In 2016, police forces started to change their coding of injury severity, from non-injury-based reporting systems, where severity is judged by the reporting police officer, to injury-based reporting systems which reduce subjectivity. This tends to increase serious injury reporting. Adjusted figures from 2004 onwards are reported to take account of these changes and ensure comparability over time. Unadjusted figures from before 2004 are not directly comparable to subsequent figures.
