People injured whilst riding a cycle in Surrey
Introduction
These pages look at the cyclist casualty information for Surrey provided by the police records. There is also a comparison with the figures for all of Great Britain. GB data is sourced from the Department for Transport. Great Britain figures are made available annually, usually in September of the following year, Surrey figures on this site are updated annually soon after the year end. This site was last updated on 04 May, 2026.
Surrey casualties
Unless otherwise stated, figures are for the period 01 January, 2008 to 31 December, 2025. In this time, there were 8,478 people injured whilst riding a cycle in Surrey. These casualties have arisen from 8,310 collisions. Over the same period, the total number of casualties, including cyclists, is 81,283 arising from 60,227 collisions. The most recent figures are provisional.
Casualty data for Great Britain
GB comparison figures are to the end of 2024. DfT severity adjustments have not been applied to the GB data.
From 2008 until the end of 2024, there were 297,645 cyclist casualties recorded in Great Britain, arising from 294,524 collisions.
Vision Zero
In 2024, Surrey County Council approved a Vision Zero strategy.
The strategy sets a target for a 50% reduction in killed or seriously injured casualties (KSIs) by 2035, and beyond that to achieve 0 KSIs by a date not yet specified.
The Vision Zero strategy takes the average of the two years 2019 and 2022 for its starting point. Cyclist KSIs for all years from 1994 to 2025 are shown on the data tables page and visualised on the Trends page.
In 2019, there were 101 cyclist KSIs and in 2022 there were 139 cyclist KSIs, so the Vision Zero starting point applied to cyclist casualties is 120 KSIs; therefore the aim is to reduce cyclist KSIs to 60 by the end of 2035.
For the 12 years from the start of 2024 to the end of 2035 this represents an average reduction of 5 cyclist KSI casualties each year. As explained on the Trends page, the year-to-year changes in cyclist KSIs are relatively volatile; a typical difference for any one year is 10-15 KSI casualties above or below the trend. So a change of 5 KSIs in any one year might be statistical “noise”. The cyclist KSI totals each year since the approval of Vision Zero are:
- 2024: 109 cyclist KSIs
- 2025: 109 cyclist KSIs
Summary
The sub-headings are links to pages that provide more detail on each subject.
Trends
The trend in the number of people killed whilst cycling has remained flat from 1994 to present.
Total cyclist casualties - the sum of fatal, serious and slight injuries - generally fell from 1994 to 2003, then rose to a peak in 2014.There was then a relatively steep reduction to 2019, followed by a spike in 2020 then another fall to 2024. In 2024 the number was the lowest of the entire period, with 2025 seeing an increase.
The proportion of total casualties who were seriously injured rose almost continuously from the early years of this century to 2020. Since 2020 the trend is flatter; between 31% and 36% of total cyclist casualties have been seriously injured.
Profile of a casualty
The “average” characteristics of a casualty (although averages can represent wide ranges) are:
- male
- late thirties
- a Surrey resident
And the injury occurred:
- in a built-up 30mph limit area
- on a weekday
- in daylight with fine weather
- in collision with a car
- whilst cycling straight ahead
Comparing two years
Using one of the Vision Zero reference years for comparison - 2022, compared to the most recent year of 2025 - shows that most characteristics have remained more or less constant as a percentage of all cyclist casualties.
Comparison with other areas
In 2024, Surrey had the fourth largest number of casualties in Great Britain.
Comparison with other modes
Most casualties in Surrey are car occupants.
Comparison of areas in Surrey
The “Weybridge, Walton, Molesey, Esher, Cobham” area has consistently had a higher proportion of cyclist casualties than other areas in Surrey. Pedestrian casualties are more prevalent in town centres than cyclist casualties, whilst car occupant casualties have dense linear distributions along major roads.
Young people
People aged under 18 comprise just under 1 in 7 of all cyclist casualties, with fewer in rural areas compared to all ages. At least one in four under-18 casualties are injured on the school journey. Most people under 16 are injured on “quieter” roads.
When
Casualties in winter are around half those in summer.
Where
- 61% of all cyclist casualty injuries result from collisions at junctions, the rest being ‘at least 20 metres from a junction’.
- 58% of cyclist casualties are either riding along, or at a junction that included, an unclassified road - the category into which most residential roads fall.
- Just under 3 in every 4 of casualties were riding on a road with a 30mph limit.
- 9 out of every 10 cyclist casualties happen on ‘unrestricted lanes’, that is, on the road but not in cycle lanes, cycle tracks, bus lanes or on the pavement.
How
8 out of 10 people injured whilst riding a cycle were in a collision with a motor vehicle - usually a car. 3 out of 4 cyclist casualties were going straight ahead at the time of the collision, rather than turning, starting or stopping.
Why
For both the cyclist casualty and the other participant(s), ‘ineffective observation by either the driver, rider or pedestrian’ is the most common factor contributing to the accident. It is attributed to the other participant (ie, usually the car driver) around twice as often as the cyclist casualty.