The economic cost of road crashes in Britain has topped £50 billion a year.

According to the latest Department for Transport figures, collisions are not simply a road-safety issue but a major economic burden.

The figures have prompted renewed calls from road-safety and motoring organisations for greater investment in preventing crashes, deaths and serious injuries. 

Billions lost 

The latest DfT costing methodology puts the average cost of preventing a reported road casualty at £106,298, rising to £2.53 million for a fatality and £283,745 for a serious injury.

The equivalent average cost per reported collision is £142,473.

However, the true cost is considerably higher because many crashes and injuries are never reported to police.

In the latest DfT figures, it estimates that reported injury collisions account for around £14 billion a year, while unreported injury collisions add approximately £36 billion.

Damage-only collisions contribute another £5 billion, bringing the estimated total to around £55 billion annually.

These calculations take account of medical and emergency-service costs, lost economic output, insurance and administration, property damage, and the human costs associated with death and injury.

IAM RoadSmart Director of Policy and External Communications Nicholas Lyes said the latest figures demonstrate why road safety should also be viewed through an economic lens.

“Apart from the emotional devastation caused by road collisions, the cost to Britain in terms of lost output, insurance, damage, and medical costs is estimated to be more than £50bn a year,” he said.

He called for the Government to be ambitious in implementing its Road Safety Strategy, arguing that investment in preventing collisions and improving driving standards should be regarded as an economic priority as well as a road-safety one.

Business impact

The consequences extend well beyond the people directly involved.

The DfT estimates that in 2025, 37% of reported injury collisions involved at least one vehicle being driven for work, equivalent to 37,456 collisions.

An estimated 9,804 people were killed or seriously injured in collisions involving at least one driver travelling for work.

For businesses, crashes can mean vehicle downtime, missed appointments, damaged goods, insurance claims, employee absence and lost productivity.

The AA has similarly highlighted the importance of roads to the wider economy. AA president Edmund King has pointed out that around 90% of freight and 86% of passenger journeys are made by road, warning that unreliable roads have consequences for businesses and the economy as a whole.

Prevention pays

The latest figures come as the Government works towards its target of reducing deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads by 65% by 2035.

But the latest casualty statistics show the challenge: despite the fall in fatalities, serious casualties rose in 2025 and have remained relatively stable for much of the past decade.

TRL Director of Safety Management Professor Richard Cuerden said nearly 30,000 people being killed or seriously injured demonstrated the need for coordinated action across road design, vehicle safety, enforcement, education and driver behaviour.

PACTS has also stressed that investment in road safety has wider economic benefits, with executive director Jamie Hassall describing road-safety investment as good for “people’s health and wellbeing, the environment, business, and the country”.

For the driving training profession, the figures provide a powerful reminder to parents and learners that professional training is about considerably more than passing a test, and that the costs go far beyond the lessons being paid for with a professional driving instructor.

Every collision prevented potentially saves lives, reduces pressure on emergency and health services, protects businesses from disruption and removes another cost from Britain’s economy.