Figures show 'encouraging' fall in road casualties

Oxfordshire is bucking the regional trend on road safety with falling casualty figures are reduced, new provisional government figures suggest.

The statistics released on 28 May showed 18 people were killed on Oxfordshire's roads in 2025. The number of people killed or seriously injured in the whole Thames Valley rose by about 20%, while the number for Oxfordshire fell by about 18% compared to the previous year.

Council leader Tim Bearder said "the early signs are extremely encouraging".

But Robin Tucker from the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel (CoHSAT) said more could be done to help achieve Vision Zero when it comes to road casualties.

The county council's Vision Zero target is to reduce fatalities and serious injuries from road collisions in Oxfordshire to zero by 2050, with a 50% reduction by 2030.

The released data shows the road fatalities in Oxfordshire last stood at 18 in 2021.

In February 2022, the council's cabinet approved an £8m budget to support the roll-out of 20mph schemes across the county.

The local authority said that since then, more than 275 communities in urban and rural areas had requested and implemented 20mph measures.

Bearder said Oxfordshire "appears to be bucking the wider Thames Valley trend, with serious and fatal casualties falling significantly at a time when neighbouring areas are seeing increases".

"While these figures are still provisional, the early signs are extremely encouraging."

Gareth Epps, cabinet member for transport, said the local authority was not "complacent" about its key priority to make roads safer.

"I had a shocking reminder of that with a fatal accident in my division in April and we'll continue to pursue policies that protect everyone who uses the roads not just those who are behind the wheel but also the most vulnerable."

CoHSAT said that even though road casualties in Oxfordshire had fallen to their lowest levels on record, "anything above zero serious injuries is still too high".

It pointed to the numbers of people killed or seriously injured in the Thames Valley Police area having risen by 20%, after an all-time low in 2023.

Tucker said Helsinki and Oslo should be looked at as examples, as the cities reported zero pedestrian fatalities in 2016.

He said there were "more things to do" to improve safety.

"The programme that Oxfordshire has, the Vision Zero programme, has a series of programmes to look at the hotspots of where casualties occurring and make improvements to the roads."