Police recorded road collisions: January to March 2024 (provisional)
Data on severity of injury and type of road user for January to March 2024.
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Introduction
The data presented here reflect the personal injury road collisions reported by police in Wales from January to March (Q1) 2024. While these data are the most detailed and reliable source of information on road collisions and casualties, they do not provide a complete record of all such incidents.
Given the increased interest in collisions data since the roll out of the 20mph default speed limit on 17 September 2023, we are publishing this statistical headline alongside the routine quarterly publication of data tables to summarise key results and to help interpretation and understanding. We also published a Chief Statistician’s update on ‘understanding road collisions and casualty statistics’ on 24 May 2024.
All the underlying data is published on StatsWales, and our road collisions dashboard.
Data for 2024 Q1 are provisional and subject to potential revision in the future. Detailed quality information is published in the accompanying quality report.
Collisions
Time series data over the long term are presented in our annual statistical release and show a long-term decrease in road collisions reported by police in Wales.
In 2024 Q1, there were 606 police reported road collisions in Wales. Of these collisions:
- 16 (3%) were fatal.
- 163 (27%) were serious collisions.
- 427 (70%) were slight collisions.
The total number of collisions is 18% lower than in the previous quarter (737) and 17% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (733).
The number of police-recorded road collisions in 2024 Q1 is the lowest quarterly figure recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period. However, the number of quarterly road collisions in Wales has generally been declining steadily over the last decade and quarterly figures can be volatile. Care should be taken when interpreting this data over a short time period.
Figure 1: Quarterly police-reported road collisions in Wales, 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1
Description of Figure 1: The line chart shows a time series for the number of police-reported road collisions in Wales each quarter from 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1. The number of quarterly road collisions has declined steadily over the last decade.
Source: Road collision statistics, Welsh Government
20 and 30mph road speed limit
Most roads that were 30mph became 20mph on 17 September. Given that significantly more roads are now 20mph roads (an increase from approximately 870km to 13,000km), and significantly fewer are 30mph (a decrease from approximately 13,100km to 980km), this section considers collisions that occurred on all 20mph and 30mph roads (combined).
In 2024 Q1, there were 316 road collisions on 20 and 30mph road speed limits (combined). Of these, 5 were fatal collisions, 69 were serious and 242 slight collisions.
The number of collisions on 20 or 30mph roads is 17% lower than in the previous quarter (379) and 25% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (421).
The number of police-recorded road collisions on 20 or 30mph roads in 2024 Q1 is the lowest quarterly figure recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period. This number has generally been declining over the last decade.
Road collisions data after the change to the 20mph default speed limit is currently limited to a short period of time (17 September 2023 to 31 March 2024) and is volatile over the short term. Care should be taken when interpreting this data over a short time period. We will continue to monitor this over time as more data becomes available. Our Chief Statistician’s update includes more information.
Figure 2: Quarterly police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20 or 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales, 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1
Description of Figure 2: The line chart shows a time series for police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20 or 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales each quarter from 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1. The number of quarterly road collisions on 20mph or 30mph has declined steadily over the last decade.
Source: Road collision statistics, Welsh Government
Casualties
Individual collisions can result in multiple casualties with different levels of injury severity.
In 2024 Q1 there were 811 road casualties reported in Wales. Of these casualties:
- 16 (2%) were killed.
- 188 (23%) people were seriously injured.
- 607 (75%) had slight injuries.
The total number of casualties is 17% lower than in the previous quarter (982) and 16% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (968).
The number of casualties in police-recorded road collisions in 2024 Q1 is the lowest quarterly figure recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period. This number has generally been declining over the last decade.
Figure 3: Quarterly road casualties in Wales, 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1
Description of Figure 3: The line chart shows a time series for the number of casualties in police-reported road collisions in Wales each quarter from 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1. The number of quarterly casualties has declined steadily over the last decade.
Source: Road collision statistics, Welsh Government
20 and 30mph road speed limit
In 2024 Q1, there were 377 road casualties from road collisions on 20 and 30mph road speed limits (combined). Among these, 5 were fatalities, 73 were serious and 299 were slight casualties.
The number of casualties on 20 or 30mph roads is 19% lower than in the previous quarter (463) and 26% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (510).
The number of casualties on roads with 20 and 30mph road speed limits (combined) in 2024 Q1 were the lowest quarterly figures recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period. This number has generally been declining over the last decade.
Figure 4: Quarterly casualties reported on roads with a 20 or 30mph speed limit in Wales, 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1
Description of Figure 4: The line chart shows a time series quarterly number of casualties in police-reported road collisions on roads with a 20 or 30mph speed limit (combined) in Wales each quarter from 2010 Q1 to 2024 Q1. The numbers have declined steadily over the last decade.
Source: Road collision statistics, Welsh Government
Notes
These statistics only include road collisions which resulted in personal injury and for which information was reported by the police. It is known that there is an element of under-recording of such incidents, particularly for less severe incidents where police officers may not have been in attendance.
These statistics do not include road collisions:
- that were not reported to the police
- that occurred on private land i.e. car parks or fields
- where no personal injury was recorded
- where the collision was later confirmed by a medical professional or coroner to be a suicide or medical episode
On 17 September 2023, the law changed the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales from 30mph to 20mph. These are usually residential or busy pedestrian streets with streetlights. The changes will have affected most roads that were 30mph before 17 September, but not all. We have published a map on DataMapWales that shows which roads have stayed at 30mph.
Some data quality issues have been identified relating to the recorded speed limit of the road where collisions occurred. This is explained in more detail at the beginning of the Police recorded road collisions: 2023 statistical bulletin and in the data quality report.
