Driving

Is driving safe?

Mile for mile, being in a car is one of the safer things you do. In Britain, the Department for Transport counts 1.02 car occupant deaths per billion passenger km in 2024 and 1.13 on a ten-year average. That is about 0.16 to 0.18 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per 100 passenger miles. Counted per vehicle mile instead, the rate was 2.7 per billion miles in 2024, because most cars carry more than one person. The US is riskier: IIHS counted 22,713 people killed in passenger vehicles in 2024, which works out at roughly 0.7 micromorts per 100 vehicle miles. For people in cars rather than SUVs and pickups, NHTSA puts it at 1.13 per 100 million vehicle miles (2023), or about 1.1 per 100 vehicle miles. Per passenger mile, both US figures would be lower.

The catch is volume. Most adults drive or ride in a car nearly every day, so a small risk per mile becomes one of the largest risks most people take. In 2024, 39,254 people died on US roads, more than in all the sports on this list combined.

Why we measure per 100 miles

Activity risk is usually stated per session: one jump, one dive, one day on the slopes. For driving, the natural unit is distance. A 100-mile round trip is a realistic outing, and it puts driving on the same footing as motorcycling and cycling:

Mode (Britain, 2024)	Deaths per billion miles	MicromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per 100 miles
Car occupant (per passenger mile)	1.6	0.16
Pedal cyclist	23.3	2.3
Pedestrian (per mile walked)	26.9	2.7
Motorcyclist	106.7	10.7

Source: Department for Transport, RAS0203 (deaths per billion passenger km, converted to miles). Being inside a steel box with airbags and crumple zones is more than ten times safer per mile than cycling and more than sixty times safer than riding a motorbike.

Britain versus the US

The same activity carries about two to four times more risk per mile in the US. IIHS's 2024 snapshot points to the main reasons:

• Belts. Of passenger vehicle occupants aged 13 and over killed in 2024, only 46% were belted.
• Speed. Speeding was a factor in 29% of crash deaths, 11,288 people.
• Road mix. More travel is on fast, undivided rural roads where head-on and run-off-road crashes are severe.

Britain has its own version of the same story. In 2024, speed was a factor in 59% of fatal collisions, behaviour or inexperience in 52%, and distraction or impairment in 34%. About a quarter of car occupants killed were not wearing a seat belt, rising to 39% for crashes in the evening and at night.

Who carries most of the risk

The average hides big differences. Young, newly qualified drivers, especially young men, crash far more per mile than middle-aged drivers. Night driving, rural roads and weekends are over-represented in deaths. Drivers aged over about 80 are more fragile and more likely to die in a crash of the same force.

The car matters too. Modern crash structures, side and curtain airbags and electronic stability control have cut deaths, and automatic emergency braking reduces rear-end crashes. Euro NCAP and IIHS ratings let you compare models.

How to drive more safely

1. Belt up every time, in every seat. Rear passengers without belts can kill the person in front of them.
2. Keep to the limit and slow down on rural roads. Speed is the biggest single factor in British fatal crashes.
3. Do not drive after drinking or using drugs, and do not drive when very tired. The Highway Code advises a break of at least 15 minutes every two hours.
4. Put the phone out of reach or in driving mode. Hands-free calls are still a distraction.
5. Buy the safest car you can afford. Look for a five-star Euro NCAP rating or an IIHS Top Safety Pick with automatic emergency braking.
6. Give new drivers supervised practice, and limit night driving and young passengers in their first year.
7. Look out for people outside the car. In Britain, more pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists were killed in 2024 than car occupants.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (88) is low per 100 miles, and help usually arrives quickly (88). Injury risk (76) and controllability (72) are lower because serious crashes are common in total and other drivers cause many of them. Compare a commercial flight in our flying page, which carries less risk than a typical drive to the airport and back.