The Department for Transport's 2025 younger-driver factsheet covers car drivers aged 17 to 24 and collisions reported by police in Great Britain.
Its clearest finding is the rate of serious harm. Young male car drivers aged 17 to 24 had a killed or seriously injured casualty rate per billion miles around four times that of all car drivers aged 25 and over.
In 2025, 4,735 people were killed or seriously injured in collisions involving at least one younger car driver. This was 2% higher than in 2024, although the total has fallen substantially since 2004.
The people represented in that total were not only young drivers. Of the 4,735 casualties, 1,381 were younger car drivers and 944 were passengers travelling in their cars. A further 2,410 were recorded as other casualties, including occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians and other road users.
That means 51% of those killed or seriously injured in these collisions were neither the younger driver nor their passenger.
The 51% figure needs care. The statistics show that a younger driver was involved in the collision. They do not, by themselves, establish who caused it. What they do establish is that the consequences of a collision can spread beyond one vehicle and affect people who may have had no connection to the young driver.
The factsheet provides further context. Across 2021 to 2025, killed or seriously injured casualties in young-driver collisions peaked on weekdays between 4pm and 7pm, with an increase during evenings and early mornings at weekends. In 2025, 35% of younger-driver killed or seriously injured casualties occurred in single-vehicle collisions.
This is not a reason to label every young driver as unsafe. It is a reason to take a clearly identified period of elevated risk seriously. Age, limited experience, social context and the conditions in which young people drive can meet at the same time.
DriverReady was created for that transition. Before students begin driving independently, it gives them time to understand the facts, explore why particular situations become difficult, practise strategies and make plans they can use. Better preparation is about the young person, their passengers and everyone sharing the road.