AN 18 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the West Midlands’ roads in the first half of 2025 has been welcomed.
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.
The 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.
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.
This 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.
Mayor Richard Parker said: “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.
Other measures include stepping up 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 and 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.
Mr MacDonald said: “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.”