Reported road casualties Great Britain: Injury severity within injury-based reporting systems 2024
Updated 25 September 2025
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This factsheet presents an initial high-level summary of statistics on injury severity and injury type, for reported road collisions in injury-based reporting systems police forces in Great Britain. The department welcomes feedback on this factsheet and, subject to this, will complete further analysis.
This factsheet is based on data for 2024 updating previous versions with data for years from 2019 to 2023. There are a number of separate reports, which reflects changes in the number of police forces using injury-based reporting systems.
1. Introduction
Since 2012, some police forces have begun providing STATS19 road casualty data through injury-based reporting systems, most commonly CRaSH (Collision Recording and SHaring system). Within injury-based reporting systems, casualty severity data is determined by the most severe injury sustained.
This has provided 2 new variables that have not previously been published, most severe injury sustained and a more specific casualty severity variable. The figure below shows how the traditional severity-based assessment of casualties as killed, serious and slight map to each injury-based reporting system casualty severity level and the associated injuries (a copy in table format is available in related guidance). This classification was informed by research commissioned by the department.
Figure 1: Injury-based classification of severity
This analysis is based on data for 33 police forces, including 28 using the CRaSH system in 2024 and a further 5 forces that are not using CRaSH but have adopted injury-based reporting systems, including some data for the Metropolitan police which have been included for the first time as the consistency of their injury data has improved. More details are contained within the caveats section. The full list of forces using injury-based systems in 2024 can be found in our guidance on injury based reporting and severity adjustments.
The data therefore does not represent all casualties in Great Britain, and may not be representative of all police forces. This should be kept in mind when interpreting the results.
2. Casualty severity - overall
More than half of overall reported road casualties were reported within injury-based reporting system police forces in 2024. Table 1 shows the breakdown of these by casualty severity, including the breakdown of serious casualties into very serious, moderately serious and less serious. The proportions of casualties of each severity were broadly similar to those in previous years, with the majority being slight casualties.
Table 1: Number and proportion of casualties of each severity: injury-based reporting system forces 2024
| Casualty severity | Casualties in 2024 | % of all 2024 casualties |
|---|---|---|
| Killed | 1,229 | 1.2 |
| Very Serious | 3,921 | 3.9 |
| Moderately Serious | 4,394 | 4.3 |
| Less Serious | 12,795 | 12.6 |
| Slight | 79,137 | 78.0 |
| Total | 101,476 | 100.0 |
3. Casualty severity by road user type
Chart 1 shows the number of serious casualties (including less, moderately and very serious) for each road user type in 2024. The chart also shows the percentage of each serious casualty type, as a proportion of the total number of serious casualties, broken down by road user type in 2024.
Within the serious category, ‘less serious’ injuries were the most common for each road user type, and ‘very serious’ injuries were least common.
Vulnerable road users (for example pedestrians, pedal cyclists) generally had a higher proportion of less serious injuries than non-vulnerable road users. In 2024, around 70% of serious pedestrian and pedal cyclist casualties were categorised as ‘less serious’, compared around half of serious car occupant casualties.
Chart 1: Number and severity breakdown of serious casualties, by road user type: 2024
4. Most severe injury sustained - overall
Data in this section excludes that for the Metropolitan police, where a non-trivial proportion of records have been coded with ‘other’ injuries.
Table 2 shows the number and percentage of casualties with each injury in 2024. Note that this is only the most severe injury recorded by the police, not a full list of all injuries sustained. The proportion of injuries categorised under each injury has remained broadly stable over the last 5 years (figures for 2019 to 2023 are published separately).
Table 2: Number and percentage of casualties, by most severe injury recorded: 2024
| Most Severe Injury Type | Casualties in 2024 | % of all 2024 casualties |
|---|---|---|
| Deceased | 1,127 | 1.4 |
| Broken neck or back | 807 | 1.0 |
| Internal injuries | 947 | 1.2 |
| Multiple severe injuries and unconscious | 191 | 0.2 |
| Severe chest injury with any difficulty breathing | 555 | 0.7 |
| Severe head injury and unconscious | 783 | 1.0 |
| Deep penetrating or puncture wound | 140 | 0.2 |
| Fractured pelvis or upper leg | 1,236 | 1.6 |
| Loss of arm or leg (or part) | 80 | 0.1 |
| Multiple severe injuries and conscious | 376 | 0.5 |
| Other chest injury (not bruising or shallow cut) | 2,089 | 2.7 |
| Deep cuts or lacerations | 1,427 | 1.8 |
| Fractured arm or collarbone or hand | 3,089 | 4.0 |
| Fractured lower leg or ankle or foot | 2,662 | 3.4 |
| Other head injury (not bruising or shallow cut or dental injuries) | 3,359 | 4.3 |
| Bruising | 11,762 | 15.1 |
| Shallow cuts or lacerations or abrasions or dental injuries (loss of tooth) | 12,531 | 16.1 |
| Shock (Requiring roadside attention) | 3,252 | 4.2 |
| Sprains or strains or dislocation | 12,038 | 15.5 |
| Whiplash or neck pain | 19,366 | 24.9 |
| Other injury | 4 | 0.0 |
| Total | 77,821 | 100.0 |
5. Most severe injury sustained by road user type
Data in this section excludes that for the Metropolitan police, where a non-trivial proportion of records have been coded with ‘other’ injuries.
Table 3 shows the percentage of casualties assigned each most severe injury sustained, broken down by road user type, in 2024.
Compared to other road user types, van and car occupants had higher proportions of injuries categorised as whiplash or neck pain. Motorcyclists had a higher proportion of injuries categorised under all 3 types of fractures compared to other road user types. Pedal cyclists, pedestrians and motor cyclists had a higher proportion of severe head injuries and, alongside Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) occupants, a higher proportion of shallow cuts, lacerations and abrasions. These road user type differences are illustrated in Chart 2.
Table 3: Percentage of casualties assigned each most severe injury, by road user type: 2024
| Most Severe Injury Type | Casualty Severity | Pedestrian | Pedal Cyclist | Motorcyclist | Car Occupant | Van Occupant | Bus Occupant | HGV Occupant | Other Vehicle Occupant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deceased | Killed | 2.5 | 0.8 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 2.1 | 1.7 |
| Broken neck or back | Very Serious | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 |
| Internal injuries | Very Serious | 1.3 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
| Multiple severe injuries and unconscious | Very Serious | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Severe chest injury with any difficulty breathing | Very Serious | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Severe head injury and unconscious | Very Serious | 2.2 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Deep penetrating or puncture wound | Moderately Serious | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Fractured pelvis or upper leg | Moderately Serious | 2.8 | 2.1 | 4.8 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 2.3 |
| Loss of arm or leg (or part) | Moderately Serious | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| Multiple severe injuries and conscious | Moderately Serious | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Other chest injury (not bruising or shallow cut) | Moderately Serious | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 1.3 |
| Deep cuts or lacerations | Less Serious | 2.8 | 3.7 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 4.0 |
| Fractured arm or collarbone or hand | Less Serious | 3.8 | 7.7 | 10.6 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 5.1 |
| Fractured lower leg or ankle or foot | Less Serious | 9.1 | 3.3 | 10.8 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 6.9 |
| Other head injury (not bruising or shallow cut or dental injuries) | Less Serious | 6.1 | 4.6 | 2.2 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 8.2 | 4.0 | 5.4 |
| Bruising | Slight | 23.2 | 16.5 | 12.8 | 13.3 | 12.4 | 25.1 | 10.1 | 16.4 |
| Shallow cuts or lacerations or abrasions or dental injuries (loss of tooth) | Slight | 20.4 | 31.9 | 16.9 | 12.5 | 13.7 | 17.5 | 22.3 | 24.1 |
| Shock (Requiring roadside attention) | Slight | 3.2 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 5.4 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 5.9 | 3.1 |
| Sprains or strains or dislocation | Slight | 15.3 | 15.0 | 17.6 | 15.1 | 17.4 | 18.2 | 16.7 | 13.7 |
| Whiplash or neck pain | Slight | 4.2 | 5.6 | 5.9 | 35.7 | 34.4 | 17.5 | 22.3 | 10.1 |
| Other injury | Any | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Total | All | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
Chart 2: Road user type differences in the percentage of casualties assigned certain most severe injuries: 2024
6. Caveats
The Metropolitan police used an injury-based system to report road casualties over this period. In the past, casualty data from the Metropolitan police has been inconsistently populated within the STATS19 database. However, for 2024 this appears to have changed so that for the first time Metropolitan police data has been included in this analysis, to some extent. The exception to this is the small number of casualties where the injury severity category and the type of injury were inconsistent, accounting for around 100 records. Also, Metropolitan police data is excluded from the analysis of injury type, as around a quarter of injuries have been recorded as ‘other’ which skews the proportions shown.
Additionally, a small number of casualties across several other police forces were removed from this analysis, due to inconsistent casualty severity and most severe injury type data. Solutions to these data issues are being investigated by the department.
7. Feedback
We welcome further feedback on any aspects of the department’s road safety statistics including content, timing, and format, via the contact details below. Data on the more detailed breakdown of injuries is not currently included in the annual road casualty statistics, but further breakdowns can be requested via the details below. Applications for researchers wishing to use the detailed record level data will also be considered, though must meet the department’s conditions for holding and processing sensitive data.
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10. Contact details
Road safety statistics
Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk