Scale of London bus crashes revealed as TfL records 40 'damage' incidents a day

Transport for London (TfL) has said the number of buses damaged in collisions is rising.

New figures indicate there were a total of 15,390 incidents that led to damage in 2025 and close to 16,000 in the year prior.

The data was released to the BBC after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The numbers are a stark difference to previous years, with 14,986 damage incidents in 2023, and 13,754 in 2022.

In 2019, the first year data on this subject was available, saw 12,857 incidents recorded.

Incidents logged during 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic was at its height, saw a lower number.

A senior source at one bus company, which operates in London, said most to nearly all of the incidents reported as part of the data are likely to be very minor.

Fatal casualties on roads - this includes other types of vehicles - are also at their lowest levels outside of the pandemic, according to TfL data released last year.

The source told The Standard that such incidents do not include personal injuries and that, while the damage recorded in the data did not specify who was to blame, bus drivers were facing more difficult situations than ever.

Part of this, they said, is down to changes in roads that mean bus drivers are operating in tighter spaces in some parts of London.

In addition, there are noticeable differences in pedestrian behaviour because of an increased use of technology.

They also recalled more than one incident, of which The Standard could not immediately verify, in which a person on their phone had walked straight into the side of a bus.

The source also said that part of the problem is an increase in cyclists and delivery drivers, something they said is generally a “good thing”, but can make it harder for buses to operate, especially when some fellow road users do not adhere to the rules of the road.

TfL said data "includes all incidents where damage has been reported, including minor damage to the vehicle".

This includes minor damage to lights, mirrors and paint scruffs.

The data "does not imply which road user's behaviour or error may have led to the incident", the network said.

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TfL said it has a “comprehensive and world-leading bus safety programme” and seeks to continue “major safety improvements across our network”.

"We fund specific interventions to reduce collisions and improve existing safety processes and data collection, including continuing the rollout of a new design to the front end of buses to reduce the impact of a collision with vulnerable road users."