149 road fatalities in 2025, fatal accidents involving elderly pedestrians more than doubled: SPF annual road traffic situation report

Traffic accidents resulting in death or injury have seen an uptick, with the Singapore Police Force (SPF) noting that the "persistent upward trend over the last few years is worrying".

"Motorcyclists and elderly pedestrians continue to be the most vulnerable road user groups," the police press release stated. The number of fatal accidents involving elderly pedestrians more than doubled.

At a briefing for the annual traffic situation report, Bernard Tay, Chairman of the Singapore Road Safety Council (SRSC), said, "We are saddened to learn that the number of elderly pedestrian fatalities has increased".

"Each life lost on a road is one too many, and behind every statistic is a family deeply affected."

Fatal traffic accidents & fatalities increased in 2025

The number of fatal traffic accidents rose from 139 cases in 2024 to 147 in 2025, a 5.8 per cent increase, said the SPF.

The number of fatalities increased from 142 persons in 2024 to 149 in 2025, a 4.9 per cent climb.

For traffic accidents resulting in injury, figures increased from 7,053 cases in 2024 to 7,560 in 2025, a 7.2 per cent rise.

The number of injured persons also jumped from 9,342 individuals to 9,955 in 2025, a 6.6 per cent increase.

According to the SPF, the primary causes of road accidents were a failure to keep proper lookout at 52 per cent, a failure to have adequate control of the vehicle at 11 per cent and changing lanes without due care at 7 per cent.

Elderly pedestrian fatal accidents up 145.5%

The SPF said that while the elderly make up 12.9 per cent of Singapore’s overall population in 2025, they were involved in 75 per cent of all fatal traffic accidents involving pedestrians and pedestrian fatalities.

Traffic accidents involving elderly pedestrians increased by 21.7 per cent, from 203 cases in 2024 to 247 in 2025.

However, the number of fatal accidents involving elderly pedestrians increased significantly by 145.5 per cent, from 11 cases in 2024 to 27 in 2025.

The number of injured elderly pedestrians increased by 15 per cent, from 193 persons in 2024 to 222 in 2025.

Of the number of fatal accidents involving pedestrians who jaywalked, 15 cases involved elderly pedestrians, up from seven cases in 2024.

In 2025, the elderly accounted for 83.3 per cent of the total number of fatalities involving pedestrians who jaywalked.

27.1% increase in red-light running accidents & 25.9% rise in speeding violations

There was a 27.1 per cent increase in red-light running accidents from 96 cases in 2024 to 122 in 2025.

Seven cases of red-light running in 2025 resulted in fatalities, up from six in 2024.

This was despite a decrease in red-light running violations by 14.1 per cent from 29,652 cases in 2024, to 25,462 in 2025.

Speeding violations increased by 25.9 per cent from 201,538 cases in 2024 to 253,550 cases in 2025.

However, there was a decrease in speeding-related accidents by 5.9 per cent from 547 cases in 2024 to 515 in 2025.

Speeding-related fatal accidents also fell from 46 cases in 2024 to 41 cases in 2025; similarly, the proportion of fatal accidents due to speeding also decreased.

Decrease in drink-driving violations and accidents

According to the SPF, the number of persons arrested for drink-driving decreased by 4 per cent, from 1,788 in 2024 to 1,716 in 2025.

The number of drink-driving accidents decreased by 6 per cent, from 166 cases in 2024 to 156 cases in 2025.

The number of fatal drink-driving accidents remained unchanged, with 12 cases in both 2024 and 2025.

The SPF said that "drink-driving is a highly culpable offence and remains one of our top priorities".

Motorcyclists & pillion riders accounted for 53.8% of all traffic fatalities

In 2025, motorcycles only took up 15 per cent of Singapore's total vehicle population, but motorcyclists and pillion riders accounted for 54.8 per cent of all traffic accidents and 53.8 per cent of all traffic fatalities.

Accidents involving motorcyclists increased by 6.4 per cent from 3,973 cases in 2024 to 4,227 in 2025.

The number of motorcyclist and pillion rider casualties increased by 7.4 per cent, from 4,510 persons in 2024 to 4,844 in 2025.

However, the number of fatal accidents involving motorcyclists decreased by 9.2 per cent, from 87 cases in 2024 to 79 cases in 2025.

The number of motorcyclists and pillion rider fatalities dropped by 7.1 per cent, from 85 persons in 2024 to 79 in 2025.

Traffic Police 'to take tougher enforcement stance'

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Traffic Police (TP) implemented expanded speeding enforcement operations and activated speed enforcement functions in red-light cameras (RLCs).

RLCs contributed to a two-fold increase in speeding violations over two years, from 116,440 cases in 2023 to 253,550 in 2025.

From Jan. 1, 2026, enhanced penalties for speeding offences and road traffic offences committed on Friendly Streets were enforced.

The speed limiter regime for lorries was also expanded, with 94.2 per cent of lorries completing the installation in the first phase.

Besides raising safety standards for motorcycle helmets and child restraint systems, TP is also exploring advanced technologies, including Traffic Violation Enforcement Cameras (TVEC) and Handheld Breath Evidential Analysers (HBEA) to strengthen its detection and enforcement capabilities.

TVECs will operationalise on Mar. 1, 2026 and will use video analytics and automatic number plate recognition to detect violations in real time.

Traffic Police Commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner Daniel Tan said that TP will work with their partners, the SRSC, the People's Association (PA) and Land Transport Authority (LTA), "to reach out into the different precincts and communities" and bring TP's "road safety message closer to the ground".

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Top photo from Shin Min Daily News