Londoners more likely to crash on rural roads
Fri, 12 Dec 2025
Londoners are more likely to be involved in a collision on rural roads, new research has found, which some are putting down to overconfidence when driving in the countryside.
Nearly 4 in 10 Londoners have been in a crash on a country road, found the survey by NFU Mutual, compared to 23% of the general population.
Just 13% of those from Yorkshire & the Humber and 15% from the West Midlands, had been involved in a rural collision.
Londoners were also more likely to say they felt ready to drive on rural roads straight after passing their driving test.
The NFU Mutual research found that rural roads are significantly more deadly, when taking into account the miles travelled.
There were 6.3 deaths per billion miles travelled on a country road in 2024, compared to 4.7 on urban roads, and 1.3 on motorways.
"The figures shock and worry me," NFU Mutual chief executive Nick Turner told the Sunday Times. He wants to see more rural road training for learner drivers and a rural road safety awareness course for drivers who offend on rural roads.
The government’s upcoming national road safety strategy should "address this avoidable loss of life in our countryside.
"It’s not acceptable that Britain continues to lose around 1000 people each year to rural road fatalities, and more needs to be done.
"The unique hazards found on rural roads – from blind corners and junctions, to inappropriate speed limits, to navigating vulnerable road users and agricultural vehicles – mean that using countryside roads is fundamentally different to travelling on urban roads or motorways."
The survey found that almost a third of respondents had rarely or never driven on rural roads while learning to drive – and four in five would support more training and testing for driving on country roads.
DfT figures show rural A-roads are by far the most dangerous type of road in the UK, with 634 fatalities in 2024. Motorways were the safest, with 91 fatalities in the same year.
