The latest result more than reverses the increase recorded in 2024. It also extends a much longer improvement: the accident rate is now 54% below its 2011 level of 91.7 per 100,000 residents. Although the decline has not been uninterrupted, the series has moved broadly downward since its 2014 peak of 93.2.
This measure covers police-recorded accidents involving vehicles on public roads in which someone was injured or killed. A death counts if it occurs at the scene or within 30 days, while an injury must have required medical attention. It is not a count of every collision: property-damage-only incidents are outside the definition.
The companion Road accidents and road casualties series shows that the underlying number of qualifying accidents fell by 20.1%, to 222 in 2025 from 278 in 2024. Because the raw count and the population-adjusted rate declined by almost the same proportion, the improvement cannot be explained merely by a changing population denominator.
For residents and local authorities, the rate is a useful gauge of how often traffic produces physical harm relative to population size. But it is not a measure of risk per journey or kilometre driven, and the data do not show whether the latest fall reflects traffic volumes, road design, enforcement, reporting or ordinary annual variation.