The UK Bike Crash Report 2026

How many cyclists and riders are hurt on UK roads?

In 2024 the Department for Transport recorded 82 pedal cyclists killed, 3,822 seriously injured (adjusted) and 10,645 slightly injured (adjusted): 14,549 pedal cyclist casualties in all.

Over the same year 340 motorcyclists were killed, 5,468 seriously injured (adjusted) and 10,152 slightly injured (adjusted), a further 15,960 casualties.

Add the two official factsheets together and that is 422 people killed, 9,290 seriously injured and more than 30,000 reported bicycle and motorbike casualties in a single year. Every one of those numbers is a person, and many of those crashes were not their fault.

The biggest cause is the same for bikes and motorbikes: failure to look

Across fatal and serious collisions the single most commonly recorded factor for both groups is 'ineffective observation by either the driver, rider or pedestrian', in plain terms, someone not looking properly.

For pedal cyclists it was assigned in 51% of cases. For motorcyclists it was assigned to the other vehicle in 68% of cases (and to the rider in 42%; a collision can carry more than one factor).

This is the classic 'Sorry mate, I didn't see you' (SMIDSY) crash: a driver pulls out of a junction, turns across you, or changes lane into you because they did not see you. It is exactly the kind of collision where the driver, not the rider or cyclist, is usually at fault.

Where crashes happen: rural roads and junctions

Rural roads are far deadlier than their share of traffic suggests. On a 2020 to 2024 average, 56% of pedal cyclist fatalities and 69% of motorcyclist fatalities happened on rural roads, even though rural roads carry a much smaller share of bicycle and motorcycle traffic.

Junctions are the other danger point. Around 37% of both pedal cyclist and motorcyclist fatalities occurred at or within 20 metres of a junction, the place where a driver is most likely to cross your path.

Who is affected

Serious injuries fall heavily on male riders and cyclists, reflecting who rides the most miles rather than any difference in how safely they ride. On a 2020 to 2024 average, 82% of pedal cyclist and 92% of motorcyclist killed-or-seriously-injured casualties were male.

That pattern matters for claims too: lost earnings, time off work and the cost of replacing a bike and kit are often a big part of what an injured rider is owed.

The hidden number: under-reporting

The real totals are higher than the recorded ones. The DfT is clear that a considerable share of non-fatal casualties are never reported to the police, and that pedal cyclist injuries are among the most under-reported of all, because cyclists have no legal duty to report a collision.

In other words, the thousands of casualties above are a floor, not a ceiling. If you were hurt in a bike crash that was not your fault, you are far from alone, and you may be able to claim whether or not the police were ever involved.

What this means if you have been hurt

If someone else caused your crash, whether you were on a bicycle, e-bike, scooter or motorbike, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and your financial losses. A claim can cover the injury itself, lost earnings, and the cost of repairing or replacing your bike and damaged kit.

Bike Crash Claims is an independent claims-introduction service, not a law firm. We connect you with a regulated specialist firm that handles accidents like yours; they do the legal work, and you pay us nothing. The figures in this report are accident statistics, not a promise of any particular outcome or amount.

Methodology and limitations

This report is a plain-English synthesis of published Department for Transport statistics. It is not original primary research. The casualty totals are taken from the DfT's 2024 pedal cyclist and motorcyclist factsheets, both published on 25 September 2025, covering the 2024 calendar year and based on STATS19 data reported by police forces in Great Britain.

Killed, seriously injured and slightly injured counts are the DfT's own figures; serious and slight figures are 'adjusted' for changes in how police forces record severity since 2016. Location, junction, rural, gender and contributory-factor percentages are DfT five-year averages for 2020 to 2024, as stated in each factsheet.

Limitations: non-fatal casualties are under-reported, especially for cyclists, so real injury numbers are higher. Figures cover pedal cycles and motorcycles; e-scooters are reported by the DfT separately and are not included in these totals. Combined figures in this report are simple sums of the two factsheets, provided for context.