Accredited official statistics

RRCGB 2025: Road user type

Published 30 July 2026

About this chapter

This chapter shows a breakdown of casualties in reported road collisions by road user type, both counts and rates, highlighting which road users account for the largest number of casualties, and which have the highest risk (casualties per mile travelled).

1. Main findings

Based on data on road collisions reported to the police up to 2025:

• Car occupants accounted for the largest share of casualties and killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties. 53% of overall casualties were car occupants in 2025, reflecting the large share of cars in road traffic
• Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists) account for a disproportionately large share of fatalities and KSI casualties compared with their share of traffic. Together these groups made up over half of those killed and seriously injured (KSI) in road collisions and had the highest casualty rates.
• Motorcyclists are the road user group with the highest risk of death and serious injury per mile travelled. Motorcyclists accounted for 25% of road deaths but just 1% of road traffic in 2025
• Recent trends have varied by road user group. In 2025, compared with 2024, fatalities fell for car occupants and increased for motorcyclists - the second consecutive year for which this occurred. KSIs increased for vulnerable road users, particularly pedal cyclists.
• Over the past decade, there have been reductions in casualties for the main road user groups. In 2025, KSI numbers were lower than in 2015 for all 4 of the main road user types (cars, pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists), and fatalities were lower for all except motorcyclists.

Further breakdowns by road user type, casualty severity and casualty rates are provided in the sections below and in the accompanying data tables and factsheets.

2. Casualties and rates by road user type and severity

2.1 Numbers

Chart 1 shows the breakdown of casualties by road user type and severity, for 2025:

• Car occupants accounted for largest share of any single road user group, 41% of fatalities, 38% of KSIs and 53% of overall casualties
• Together, vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, pedestrians and pedal cyclists) accounted for over half of fatalities and KSIs
• Motorcyclists alone accounted for 25% of fatalities in 2025, despite representing only 1% of traffic
• When injured in collisions, a higher proportion of vulnerable road users are killed or seriously injured than occupants of vehicles – for example, 39% of motorcyclist casualties were KSI, compared to 17% of car occupants

These overall patterns have varied relatively little in recent years, although over the longer term the share of vulnerable road users casualties has increased.

Chart 1: Proportion of reported road casualties by road user type and severity, Great Britain 2025 RAS0201

Table 1: Reported road casualties by road user type and severity, Great Britain 2025 RAS0201

Road user type	Killed	KSI	All casualties
Car occupants	629	11,303	67,753
Motorcycle users	386	6,096	15,447
Pedestrians	364	6,322	19,978
Pedal cyclists	79	4,390	16,042
Light goods vehicle occupants	33	644	3,931
Other or unknown vehicle occupants	32	723	2,093
Heavy goods vehicle occupants	10	117	603
Bus or coach occupants	5	323	2,036
All road users	1,538	29,918	127,883

Other vehicles. Other vehicles includes anything not otherwise shown in table 1. This includes powered personal transporters, mostly e-scooters, which are covered in the e-scooter factsheet.

2.2 Rates

Chart 2 shows the risk of being killed or injured in a road collision per mile travelled, by road user type. This shows that:

• Fatality, KSI and casualty rates per billion miles are considerably higher for vulnerable road users than vehicle occupants
• In 2025, the fatality rate per billion vehicle miles was around 50 times higher for motorcyclists compared to cars
• Buses have higher occupant casualty rates than occupants of cars, LGVs and HGVs - this in part reflects that they typically have a higher vehicle occupancy.

While this analysis considers casualty risk for different road users, it does not consider the overall collision risk - including that to other road users - for different vehicle types, which is considered further in the chapter on vehicles involved in collisions.

Chart 2: Reported road casualties per billion vehicle miles by road user type and severity, Great Britain 2025 RAS0201

Table 2: Reported road casualties per billion vehicle miles by road user type and severity, Great Britain 2025 RAS0201

Road user type	Killed	KSI	All casualties
Motorcycle users	128	2,019	5,116
Pedestrians	24	409	1,291
Pedal cyclists	22	1,195	4,367
Bus or coach occupants	3	162	1,025
Car occupants	2	43	258
Heavy goods vehicle occupants	1	7	37
Light goods vehicle occupants	1	11	67

3. Recent trends by road user type

The patterns described above have remained broadly unchanged over the past decade, aside from a period affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, where casualty numbers (and road traffic) were generally lower, with the exception of pedal cyclists where traffic and fatalities peaked in 2020.

Chart 3 shows the trend in road users killed, and KSI, in recent years:

• The number of motorcyclists killed has risen in each of the last two years (2024 and 2025), to the highest level in the last decade, though these numbers have fluctuated over this period
• Conversely, car occupant fatalities have fallen steadily for 3 years, approaching the same level as during the pandemic year, though KSIs have not shown the same reduction
• There was a notable increase in pedal cyclist KSIs in 2025, though fatalities have fallen from the 2020 peak.

There are many factors influencing trends in road casualties, including traffic levels as well as road user behaviour, user demographics, the impact of improvements to vehicles and roads and national and local road safety policies. The impact of traffic levels is explored further in the section below, which presents trends in casualty rates by mode. Other factors are explored in other chapters of this publication.

Chart 3: Reported road fatalities and KSIs by road user type, Great Britain, 2015 to 2025 RAS0201

Table 3: Change in reported road fatalities and KSIs by road user type, Great Britain 2025 RAS0201

Road user type	Change in fatalities since 2024	Change in KSIs since 2024	Change in fatalities since 2015	Change in KSIs since 2015
Car occupants	-9%	-1%	-17%	-6%
Motorcycle users	14%	7%	6%	-12%
Pedestrians	-11%	3%	-11%	-11%
Pedal cyclists	-4%	14%	-21%	-2%
Others	1%	4%	-22%	15%

4. Longer term trend in casualty rates

4.1 Vehicle occupants

Vehicle occupants account for the majority of overall casualties in road collisions, and include car, van, HGV and bus occupants (both drivers and passengers).

*Chart 4 shows that over the past 20 years, the rate at which vehicle occupants are killed or seriously injured in road collisions has declined. Fatality rates show more fluctuation (particularly for HGV occupants), but broadly the same trends. These rates adjust for the amount of traffic, and are likely to reflect the steady improvement in vehicle safety, alongside other factors. However, the reduction in rates has been slower over the past decade compared to the previous one.

Chart 4: Reported road fatality and KSI rates per billion vehicle miles, for (selected) vehicle occupants by type: Great Britain, 2004 to 2025

4.2 Vulnerable road users

Vulnerable road users (VRUs) include motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians – these are groups which are not within a vehicle when involved in collisions, and have a higher casualty rate than vehicle occupants. Further statistics are presented in our vulnerable road user factsheets.

Since 2004, there has been a reduction in the rate of fatalities and KSIs for all the main vulnerable road user groups, though the patterns over this period have differed, as shown in Chart 5:

• For motorcyclists, fatalities per billion miles have been broadly flat from around 2010 onwards, whereas KSI rates have steadily declined over the same period
• Conversely, for pedal cyclists fatality rates have reduced more than KSI rates
• For pedestrians, both fatality and KSI rates have fallen fairly steadily

In each case, these overall rates are likely to be the result of variations within each of the groups – for example, patterns may vary by age, sex or area. Some of these variables are studied in other sections of this report.

Chart 5: Reported road fatality and KSI rates per billion vehicle miles, for (selected) vulnerable road users by type: Great Britain, 2004 to 2025

5. Further information

Further data and statistics covering casualties and casualty rates by road user type is available via:

• Vulnerable road user factsheets
• Spreadsheet data tables, particularly section RAS02: road user type
• Interactive data tools

6. About this data

Detailed information about the data used in this chapter, including its strengths and limitations, can be found in the guidance pages.

6.1 STATS19 data

The statistics in this publication are based on data collected through the STATS19 system, which records personal injury road collisions on public roads in Great Britain. STATS19 data are reported to the Department for Transport by police forces using a common national specification, allowing consistent analysis across time and geography. All collisions reported by the police within 30 days and that occurred on a public highway involving at least one motor vehicle, horse rider or pedal cyclist, and where at least one person was injured, are included in these statistics.

STATS19 is the primary source used to understand long-term trends in road collisions and casualties, and to monitor and evaluate road safety policies and interventions. Its standardised approach enables comparison at local, regional and national level, and provides a long-running time series underpinning road safety analysis.

There is no obligation for people to report all personal injury collisions to the police, and not all collisions are reported to the police, particularly those involving only slight injuries, meaning some types of incidents are under recorded. Therefore these figures do not represent the full range of collisions or casualties in Great Britain.

The quality and completeness of the data can also vary, especially for variables based on officer judgement at the scene. Changes to data collection systems, guidance or reporting practices over time may also affect comparability of trends. For example, recent updates to the STATS19 specification (including the introduction of new variables) may lead to discontinuities in some data series.

6.2 Injury severity reporting

The figures in this release for injured casualties are based on adjusting figures reported by the police to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. These adjusted figures can reliably be used to compare trends over time across the country. More details can be found in our severity adjustments guidance.

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9. Contact details

Road safety statistics

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