Drop in road casualties across the West Midlands

Ths marks a major step forward in the region’s efforts to improve road safety.

The 18% reduction follows the implementation of the West Midlands Road Safety Action Plan, launched in November 2024. The plan, developed by the Regional Road Safety Partnership, includes increased enforcement action against speeding and dangerous driving, alongside coordinated efforts from regional leaders and communities.

The progress comes one year after a joint statement was issued by Mayor Richard Parker, Chief Constable Craig Guildford, Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, and Birmingham City Council Leader John Cotton—all key members of the Regional Road Safety Partnership. Their united commitment to tackling reckless driving and saving lives has been central to the region’s progress.

To further strengthen these efforts, the Mayor appointed Mat MacDonald as the UK’s first-ever Regional Road Safety Commissioner, tasked with driving forward the action plan in collaboration with local authorities and communities.

Latest figures from West Midlands Police show that 471 people were killed or seriously injured on the region’s roads between January and June 2025—down from 575 during the same period in 2024.

Mayor Richard Parker said: “I’ve met families who’ve lost loved ones to dangerous driving and witnessed the heartbreak it causes. That’s why road safety is a top priority for me and why I appointed Mat to help turn our plans into real change.

“The latest data shows the action plan we put in place last year is beginning to get results. So far this year 100 fewer people have lost their lives or been seriously injured, that’s 100 families spared the heartbreak that comes with road traffic collisions.

“But every life lost is one too many and we still have much work to do. We will continue to invest, innovate, and work together to make our streets safer for everyone.”

Key to delivering the improvement has been a tripling of speed enforcement in the region. In June 3,781 offences were captured by mobile enforcement vans, 4,582 captured on motorway speed cameras and 28,287 offences recorded on the average speed enforcement network.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: “We have significantly invested into policing our region’s roads over the last two years, and are absolutely committed to working with partners to bring down the number of people killed and seriously injured.

“Our dedicated Roads Policing teams work to save lives and prevent serious injury by focussing on the main contributing factors to fatal and serious injury accidents.

“This isn’t about ‘persecuting innocent motorists’ but about changing long-term driving behaviours though education and enforcement.

“The reductions we are seeing in the West Midlands region are bucking the national trends, which is a testament to the genuine collaborative approach taken by all partner agencies.”

Measures taken by the partners include:

• Stepping up of speed enforcement and reviews of dashcam footage to identify dangerous drivers
• Funding and support identified to further roll out more average speed cameras, red light cameras and other enforcement initiatives across the region
• More school streets schemes introduced to block traffic around schools at the start and end of each day.

Future plans include a new charter with food delivery companies to better protect their staff and other road users and working with councils to maximise safety through design of road infrastructure.

Mat MacDonald said: “The drop in deaths and serious injuries on our roads is fantastic news. We will continue to observe the data over the coming years in the hope that this is the beginning of a long overdue trend in these grim statistics.

“Each and every one of these numbers is a real life which has been forever ruined or brutally cut short, and we must do better as a region. The graft of partners across the board to achieve these results has been exceptional, but we know from over 1,200 places across the world that it is possible to create roads where no-one is killed or seriously injured in a collision.

“There is no reason we should expect anything less in the West Midlands, and all of us must double down on our efforts to get there.”

Cllr Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport with Birmingham City Council added: “It is really encouraging that there is a downward trend in the number of casualties, but I know that is no consolation to communities who have lost a loved one.

“Together we must do whatever it takes to make roads safer for everyone, which is what our Road Harm Reduction strategy sets out.

“We are making the speed limit on virtually all roads a maximum of 30mph – this will be implemented later this year. We are also working with police on red light cameras and we have just announced six new locations for average speed cameras across the city. Working with our police partners, swift and decisive action will be taken against those who break the rules of the road. Driving is a privilege not a right.”

A key aim is to secure local retention of road related fixed penalty fine income so it can be reinvested in making local roads safer.

Simon Foster, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner added: “I made it clear a year ago, we needed to bring more careless, reckless and dangerous drivers to justice, particularly those driving at excess speed - and now we have tripled that number, which is pleasing.

“This is in part, a result of the investment, that both the Chief Constable and I have made, including additional police officers and staff allocated to roads policing and my having doubled the number of mobile speed enforcement camera vans.

“The 18% reduction is of course welcome. However, that number is clearly still far too high. I am not in the least complacent. We all need to continue, to collectively commit to constant and unremitting action, to do what it takes, to improve road safety in the West Midlands.”

ENDS