FOI 0242-2025/26 Road Traffic Collisions

Request
Q1. The number of reported road traffic accidents, broken down by year, from 2020 to 2025. 

Q2. The number of reported road rage or aggressive driving incidents from 2020 to 2025. 

Q3. The number of recorded driving offences from 2020 to 2025, specifically:

• Speeding
• Use of a mobile phone while driving
• Dangerous driving
• Driving without insurance
• Careless or Inconsiderate Driving
• Driving under the influence (alcohol or drugs)
• Driving whilst disqualified 
• Causing Death or Injury by Dangerous Driving
• Any other driving offences that there are

Please break down the data by year and local authority or city area if possible.

I would appreciate the information in a spreadsheet format if possible. If clarification is needed, I am happy to assist. 

Extent of Searches to Locate Information
Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision
I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is required to retrieve that information.

In order to retrieve the requested information in relation to ‘any other driving offences’, it would be necessary to manually review all driving offences in the specified timeframe, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). By way of assistance, data captured via our Safety Camera vehicles is publicly available using the below link:
Safety Camera Deployment | North Yorkshire Police

Additionally, if you wish to refine your request, I will be able to provide an answer to Question 1 (collisions inclusive of slight, serious and fatal), broken down by calendar year.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.