The DfT has published further analysis and development work linked to the official 2025 casualty statistics, setting out a series of initiatives designed to improve understanding of road casualties and strengthen the evidence base for road safety.
The publication, issued on 24 September, includes new analysis, data linkage projects, methodological developments and updated data tables.
Among the new outputs is a child casualty factsheet, providing analysis by age, sex, road user type, location and road environment to support monitoring of the child casualty reduction target within the government’s road safety strategy.
The DfT has also published new factsheets covering the ‘Fatal 4’ factors – speed, drink-driving, drug-driving and non-wearing of seatbelts – based on data collected through the new Road Safety Factors recording system. The current analysis covers 2024 and 2025, with the intention that it will be updated annually.
A combined factsheet covering younger and older car drivers has also been published, comparing casualty numbers and rates and examining characteristics including time, day, month, location and road environment.
Another new development is a Safety Performance Indicators dashboard, providing data to monitor road safety targets and Safety Performance Indicators at national and, where possible, sub-national level.
Linking casualty and health data
The DfT is continuing research to link STATS19 police collision records with health data, with the aim of improving understanding of casualty outcomes beyond that available from police records alone.
The work will also help assess the completeness and quality of STATS19 data, including the extent to which casualties recorded by the police can be matched with records held by health services.
This includes the Linking Police and Hospital Data on road collisions (LPHD) project, being undertaken in collaboration with the Pre-hospital Research and Audit Network (PRANA).
The first phase of the project, published in 2025, attempted to link STATS19 records with ambulance data. Phase 2 is now focused on linking STATS19 records with hospital inpatient admissions.
The DfT says this work will help improve understanding of injury severity, under-reporting and casualty outcomes, as well as supporting the future development of road casualty statistics.
The DfT is also undertaking work to link STATS19 fatality records with Office for National Statistics death registrations. This is intended to assess the completeness of reporting and improve mortality statistics derived from road safety data.
Road Safety GB involved in injury severity research
The DfT is also examining how injury severity is recorded within STATS19.
The introduction of injury-based reporting systems by many police forces has created opportunities for more detailed analysis of casualty severity. However, the department says further work is needed to understand how injury information is coded and how it can best be used in future publications.
As part of this work, the DfT has developed a 15-minute anonymous survey in conjunction with Road Safety GB, asking participants how they would record injuries in a range of collision scenarios.
The department is particularly interested in responses from people working with CRASH or other injury-based reporting systems, as well as police officers with experience of attending collisions. The survey results are expected to be published in 2027.
Improving analysis of work-related collisions and rural roads
The DfT is also developing a new approach to estimating casualties arising from driving or riding for work.
The proposed methodology seeks to improve estimates by examining whether collisions where the STATS19 journey purpose is recorded as unknown can be identified as work-related. The department intends to adopt the approach from the publication of the 2026 statistics, scheduled for summer 2027, subject to further feedback.
Development work is also underway to match collision records more accurately to the road network. One intended application is to improve the classification of rural roads, with an update planned alongside the 2026 statistics.
Meanwhile, 38 of the 44 police forces contributing to the 2025 data provided some or all information using the new STATS19 specification. The DfT has published further analysis of the impact of the specification change on trends and patterns within the dataset.
Monthly casualty estimates planned
One of the most significant future developments is the planned introduction of a new monthly series of provisional casualty estimates.
The DfT says the series is intended to provide more timely information on road casualty trends alongside the annual publication. Development work will continue through 2026 and 2027, with provisional statistics currently scheduled to begin at the end of November.
The planned series is expected to cover England initially and include year-to-date casualty estimates by severity and road user type, information on the estimated completeness of the data, and a dashboard providing access to underlying data where available.
The department has also identified several longer-term priorities, including improving understanding of injury severity, strengthening the classification and analysis of rural road collisions, further analysis of Road Safety Factors, exploring the use of statistical significance testing and improving the identification of e-bikes and related vehicle types in casualty data.
The work follows feedback gathered from around 20 organisations and individuals during August and September, including local authorities, road safety organisations, consultants and other stakeholders.
The DfT says feedback will continue to inform the development of future road casualty statistics.
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