Safer speeds: Welsh road casualties fall on 20mph and 30mph roads
Welsh figures have revealed that road casualties and collisions have fallen on streets with 20mph and 30mph speed limits.
Between April and June 2026, provisional police figures counted 378 casualties on roads with these speed limits in place. This is down 35% compared with the same period in 2023, before the 20mph speed limit was introduced. The number of collisions fell by 37% over that period, from 477 to 299.
According to the Welsh government, the figures mark the lowest on record excluding during the Covid pandemic.
Wales’ Deputy Minister for Transport Mark Hooper called the latest numbers “extremely encouraging”.
Hooper said they “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.”
The majority of residential roads in Wales changed from being 30mph to 20mph in September 2023.
Compared with the same time last year, the figures show a 22% drop in road collisions and 20% drop in casualties between April and June 2026 on roads with a 20mph and 30 mph speed limit in place. Across all Welsh roads, a 19% drop in collisions and 20% drop in casualties was recorded.
“I want to thank the police forces across Wales for their continued work in recording this data and keeping our communities safe,” Hooper said.
“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.”
Speed, ISA and the Safe System model
Safe speeds make up one of the five pillars of the Safe System model which guides Global NCAP, partners and the wider industry in its action to end road deaths and serious injuries globally. The other four Safe System pillars are: safe vehicles, safe roads, safe road users and post-crash care.
One vehicle safety technology that Global NCAP has relentlessly called for to manage speed is Intelligent Speed Assistance - or ISA. This is a life-saving technology that uses GPS mapping, onboard cameras or a combination of both to identify local speed limits and detect when vehicles exceed them.
ISA was the first subject that took to the stage for Global NCAP’s Forum for Safer Mobility which launched in New York earlier this year.
Hosted with the FIA Foundation and Families for Safe Streets to coincide with the UN High-Level Meeting, the Forum brought together city leaders, national NGOs and international partners to celebrate the recent successes of ISA and reinforce the call for global implementation of this technology.
For its ‘Women in Safety’ series, Global NCAP recently sat down with Natalie Draisin, FIA Foundation UN Representative and Director of the North American Office - and long-standing ISA champion - to reflect on the Forum’s takeaways.
“ISA is technology that helps drivers slow down and make good decisions,” Draisin said. “ISA has a multiplier effect, enabling other safety technologies like AEB and DMS to work more effectively.
“To meet the goals of the Decade of Action, we have to see ISA grow on a global scale to the extent that it has grown domestically here in the US.”
A plethora of evidence exists from across the world proving the impact of lower speeds on reducing both the number of collisions and the severity of them. As nations continue to work towards the UN Decade of Action goal of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, Global NCAP will continue to strive for the adoption of vehicle safety technologies like ISA to unlock this impact.
