115 children were killed or seriously injured on NI roads in 2025 — what the 24% rise really means
Northern Ireland's final 2025 road-safety figures show a sharp rise in child KSIs, but the statistic needs careful interpretation rather than a simplistic explanation.
115 children aged 0 to 15 were killed or seriously injured on Northern Ireland roads in 2025, according to the Department for Infrastructure's final Road Safety Strategy statistics. That was 24% higher than the 93 recorded in 2024.
The figure is also 62% above the strategy baseline of 71. It is one of the most concerning movements in the latest road-safety report, but it does not on its own tell us why the increase happened.
What does KSI mean?
KSI means killed or seriously injured. It combines fatal casualties with casualties classified as seriously injured, allowing road-safety analysts to track severe outcomes rather than fatalities alone.
That distinction matters because a year with fewer deaths can still contain more life-changing injuries.
Why one year's increase needs context
Road-casualty numbers can fluctuate from year to year, particularly when looking at smaller population groups. DfI therefore uses baselines, rolling measures and multiple indicators rather than assuming one annual change represents a permanent trend.
The 24% rise is real in the published figures. What would be wrong is to attach a single cause — speeding, phones, school traffic or anything else — without collision-level evidence supporting that conclusion.
Children can be road users in several different ways
A child casualty can be a passenger in a vehicle, a pedestrian, a cyclist or another type of road user. Prevention therefore spans more than one behaviour: appropriate child restraints, safe speeds, careful junction observation, pedestrian awareness and safer cycling environments all matter.
Why lower-speed environments matter
Children can be less predictable around roads and may have more difficulty judging vehicle speed and distance. Drivers around schools, housing estates, parked vehicles and crossings should leave enough speed and space to respond to the unexpected.
This is not an argument for assuming every child collision happens near a school. It is a practical reminder that the severity of a collision is influenced by the circumstances in which it occurs.
The wider NI road-safety picture
Northern Ireland recorded 56 road deaths overall in 2025, down from 69 in 2024, while serious injuries across all ages rose to 1,066. The child KSI increase therefore sits inside a year where different safety indicators moved in different directions.
What drivers can control
- Reduce speed where visibility is restricted by parked cars or bends.
- Expect pedestrians around schools, buses and residential streets.
- Check child restraints are appropriate and fitted correctly.
- Give cyclists sufficient room and anticipate sudden changes in line.
- Do not let a clear road create false confidence in areas where people may emerge unexpectedly.
The 115 figure should not be used to frighten parents or blame one group of road users. Its value is that it puts a hard number on severe harm involving children and shows why child road safety deserves attention even in a year when the overall fatality total fell.
