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Why Do Most UK Animal Collisions Happen After Dark?

Published 5 min read By Live Accident Tracker Editorial

Quick answer: Between 2021 and 2025, 1,939 people were injured or killed in 1,503 police-recorded animal-related collisions in Great Britain, according to Volvo Car UK's analysis of Department for Transport data. More than half of those collisions — 54% — happened in darkness, compared with 28% of all injury collisions. Almost 3 in 10 happened between 7pm and midnight, and 79% were on rural roads.

The numbers in full

Volvo Car UK analysed five years of the Department for Transport's STATS19 data, covering police-recorded personal-injury collisions in which an animal was recorded as a carriageway hazard. The totals for 2021 to 2025 are:

  • 1,503 animal-related injury collisions in Great Britain.
  • 1,939 people injured or killed in those collisions.
  • 28% of the collisions were classified as fatal or serious.
  • Year by year, collisions fell from 348 in 2021 to 265 in 2024, then stood at 271 in 2025, with casualties of 439, 452, 360, 347 and 341 in each year.

The full figures are in Volvo Car UK's analysis, published on 22 October 2026. These are police-recorded injury collisions only. A collision in which nobody was hurt does not appear in this dataset at all.

Darkness is the pattern

The single clearest finding is the time of day. More than half of animal-related collisions that hurt someone happened in darkness, while only about a quarter of injury collisions of all kinds did.

  • 54% of animal-related injury collisions happened in darkness, against 28% of all reported injury collisions overall.
  • Almost 3 in 10 animal-related collisions happened between 7pm and midnight.
  • 9pm was the single highest hour across the five-year period.

The timing matters more now than at any other point of the year. The clocks went back to Greenwich Mean Time on 25 October 2026, so the evening journey home now happens in darkness. The same clock change pushed collisions at 5pm up sharply, as set out in Why Do 5pm Collisions Jump 43% After the Clocks Go Back?. Wildlife is most active around dawn and dusk, so the dark evening commute and the animals' active hours now overlap.

Where it happens

Animal collisions are a rural problem far more than an urban one. Almost four in five happened on rural roads, where speeds are higher, lighting is sparse and animals cross freely.

  • 79% of animal-related collisions were recorded on rural roads.
  • The South East recorded the most collisions of any region, 306, followed by the South West with 226 and the East of England with 157. The South East and South West together accounted for 35% of all animal-related injury collisions.
  • The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest total of any police force area, 123, followed by Police Scotland with 96 and Hampshire with 80.
  • By month, August recorded the highest total with 157 collisions, followed by October with 151 and November with 141.

November sits near the top of the monthly table. With the clocks back and the evenings dark, it is the month when the risk described in this article is at its highest. Figures for every council area are on UK road accidents by council.

What the figures leave out

The 1,939 casualties are people hurt in collisions the police recorded. They are not a count of animals hit, and they are not a count of all animal strikes on Britain's roads.

  • The British Deer Society estimates that more than 40,000 deer are killed or injured on UK roads each year, with the true figure possibly as high as 74,000.
  • The Society also says that many deer-vehicle incidents go unreported.
  • Most animal strikes damage only the vehicle, so they never enter the police injury statistics.

The two sets of numbers describe different things and must not be mixed. The 1,939 is people injured or killed in recorded injury collisions. The 40,000 to 74,000 is an estimate of deer killed or injured, most of them in collisions nobody reported. The gap between the two is itself the point: the police figures show only the collisions that hurt a person.

Driving after dark in November

The advice for dark rural driving is practical, and it follows directly from the figures above.

  • Slow down on rural roads after dark, and expect an animal at the roadside even on a road you know well.
  • Use dipped headlights in poor light, and watch for eyeshine at the edge of the beam.
  • If an animal appears, brake firmly and stay in your lane rather than swerving into oncoming traffic or off the road.
  • Give yourself more space to the vehicle ahead, so a sudden stop does not become a second collision.
  • Take extra care between 7pm and midnight, and around 9pm in particular, when the five-year data shows these collisions peak.

A deer or a badger can appear with almost no warning. The data says the risk is concentrated in darkness, on rural roads, in the evening — and November is one of the worst months for it.

How these numbers were counted

All headline figures come from Volvo Car UK's analysis of the Department for Transport's STATS19 road safety data for 2021 to 2025, published on 22 October 2026. It is an industry analysis of DfT data, not a DfT release. The analysis covers police-recorded personal-injury collisions in Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — in which an animal was recorded as a carriageway hazard. A road death in these statistics means a person who died within 30 days of the collision. The latest year of data can be revised as police reports are finalised.

The British Deer Society figures are estimates of deer killed or injured, not counts of human casualties, and they cover a different universe from the 1,939. Today's reports are on today's accident reports.

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