Road casualties continue to fall since 20mph introduction, figures show

The number of crashes and casualties on Wales’ roads has shown a continued fall since the introduction of the 20mph default speed limit, the deputy minister for transport has said.

Provisional police-recorded figures show there were 19% fewer collisions and 20% fewer casualties on all roads in Wales between April and June 2026 than in the same quarter of 2025.

In total, police recorded 638 road collisions in Wales during the second quarter of the year, resulting in 856 casualties.

On 20mph and 30mph roads combined, collisions fell by 22% and casualties by 20% over the same period.

Compared with April to June 2023, before the 20mph default speed limit was introduced, collisions on 20mph and 30mph roads combined are down 37% and casualties are down 35%.

The Welsh Government said these were the lowest figures recorded for the period outside the Covid pandemic.

Deputy transport minister Mark Hooper said: “These latest figures are extremely encouraging and provide more evidence that the 20mph default speed limit is helping to make our roads safer.

“Every one of those figures represents someone who has avoided injury, or death, on our roads.

“I want to thank the police forces across Wales for their continued work in recording this data and keeping our communities safe.

“We will continue to monitor these trends closely, as part of our ongoing evaluation of the policy, but today’s figures are a strong sign that things continue to move in the right direction.”

The quarterly figures are provisional and based on collisions reported to police. They do not include road collisions that were not reported to the police, that took place on private land (car parks or fields for example), where no personal injury was recorded or where the collision was later confirmed by a medical professional or coroner to be a suicide or medical episode.

Research published by the Senedd in March found that collisions on 20mph and 30mph roads in Wales had fallen faster than in England and Scotland, while those on other roads remained broadly stable.