Interactive Road Safety Map Reveals Britain’s Safest and Most Dangerous Locations

LONDON, UK – 9th December 2020. A free interactive map, CollisionMap, has been launched at https://CollisionMap.uk showing road safety data across Britain. It has been enhanced and updated to incorporate 2019 collision data that has recently been released by the Department for Transport (DfT). As well as plotting all collisions dating back to the beginning of 2011, the map allows users to examine the data by region, council area and postcode and to compare figures for 2018 with 2019. Figures can be compared for individual councils against others in the same region, and users can input the first part of a postcode to compare it to the national picture. Uniquely, CollisionMap also adjusts the collision data according to population. This means that users can more accurately compare their own location with others or with the national picture.

The data reveals some interesting headline stories:
• There has been an overall reduction in the number of both collisions and casualties in 2019 across mainland Britain - by 4.3% and 4.8 %, respectively.
• Scotland has seen the largest reduction in collisions in 2019 - down by an impressive 12.4%.
• London consistently ranks poorly for having a high number of collisions, casualties and those killed and seriously injured (KSI). However, when ranked by fatal collisions per million population, London has the lowest number of collisions that resulted in a person dying.
• Overall, Scotland’s 2019 numbers are consistently among the best, whether based on the number of collisions or when adjusted for population or the total length of roads. The exception to this is the number of fatal collisions per million population, where Scotland ranks fourth worst region in Great Britain.
• The total number of collisions resulting in a person being killed or seriously injured increased in 2019 by nearly 1% - to 25,080.
• In comparison with other regions of Great Britain, Wales saw the largest increase in the total number of collisions, up by 2.5% in 2019.
• The safest locations: there are a number of postcodes with a casualty rate, per million population, of below 1. These tend to be rural postcode districts, which have both low volumes of traffic and low populations.
• The most ‘dangerous’ British location is SW1A, which includes Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, with a rate of more than 357 thousand per million population. This exceptionally high rate is due to the relative high number of vehicles, collisions and casualties in combination with a very low population (246 people).

The map has been created by Buchanan Computing, a company that specialises in web mapping and software for traffic engineering and highway management.

Alex Smith, Managing Director of Buchanan Computing explains why the company created the map: “Maintaining road safety is an important issue. There are severe financial pressures on local government, meaning authorities can’t always devote the necessary funding to road safety. By allowing the public free access to CollisionMap, we feel we are playing a part by providing the information they need that allows them to engage with local authorities on road safety matters.”

He continues, “What is unique to CollisionMap is that we’ve incorporated the facility for the public to see how they compare adjusted for population levels as well as the road length in their area. So, everyone can see if they are in a postcode that has good road safety and also check how their local authority stands compared to others.”

The home page map shows the collision percentage change from 2018 to 2019 for the major regions of Scotland, Wales and England. The map can be modified by selecting one of the other available options, to show: casualty percentage changes, fatal collisions per million population, killed and seriously injured (KSI) per million population, casualties per million population, and casualties per kilometre. The totals for all injury-related collisions, casualties and KSI collisions for the whole of Great Britain in 2019 are displayed next to the map. These change when the region selection changes.

When searching by postcode district – for example, LS6 - you access a map of the location of its 2019 collisions. These are colour coded by severity. The map data can be refined between any two dates within the last nine years (2011 - 2019), or expanded to show different heat maps, such as: the collision percentage change from 2018 to 2019; fatal collisions per million of population. There are also filters to select results based on the severity of the collision. On the right of the page, a series of selections allow you to filter your search results further: you can select road users by gender, age, and severity as well as filter for casualties by road user or class. The interactive gauges change with the selections and compare the selected postcode with the national level (for 2019), letting users know whether the situation in the chosen area is better or worse than the national one. For example, cyclist casualties in LS6 were worse (higher) than the national level, but for the same postcode district, casualties in cars were better (lower) than the national rate.

Are you in a postcode that has good road safety? Go to https://CollisionMap.uk to find out.

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Notes to editors:
• Images and rankings by region are available for download from https://we.tl/t-FSS8onkzcz until 15th December 2020 – after that, contact claire@kerrmunications.co.uk
• Publications may also make their own screen shots from: https://CollisionMap.uk
• CollisionMap includes data of collisions from 01/01/2011 to 31/12/2019 and includes the location of the collision and type.
• The interactive dashboard uses the latest 2019 data released by the DfT to provide the view for Great Britain, the major regions, councils and finally the ability to drill down to individual sector level postcodes.
• Regions can be sorted alphabetically, or ranked to show the highest and lowest collision, casualty and KSI rates.
• By clicking on a region, users can drill down to see the rates for top tier authorities within each region.
• Comparative heat maps show the collision and casualty data, normalised based on population density.
• The location search allows users to search by region name, council name or district level postcode – for example, East of England, Essex or CO1.

Regional headlines:
East Midlands (England)
• The East Midlands is the worst British region for fatalities on the road per million population. This is nearly three times higher than the rate in London.

Yorkshire and The Humber
• Yorkshire and the Humber is the second worst British region for fatalities on the road per million population.
• At 31 per million, this is more than twice as bad as the best performing region, which is London at 13.5 per million.

Wales
• Wales sees the largest increase in the total number of collisions, up by 2.5%.
• But Wales sees only the second worst numbers for casualties per 100 kilometres of roads, at 3.9. (London is worst with 40.2 casualties per 100 kilometres of roads).

Scotland
• Scotland sees the largest reduction in collisions - down by an impressive 12.4%.
• Overall, Scotland’s numbers are consistently among the best, whether based on the number of collisions or when adjusted for population or the total length of roads. The exception to this is the number of fatal collisions per million population, where Scotland ranks fourth worst.

South West (England)
• Collisions increase in the South West: the South West sees an increase in collisions, despite most of the rest of Great Britain seeing a reduction. Wales is the only other region that saw an increase.
• The South West is the third worst by number of casualties. This only drops to fourth place when adjusted for population.
• The South West does however have a good standing when it comes to casualties per 100 km of roads - at 9th position (out of the 11 regions).

East of England
• The East of England ranks as the fourth worst region in Britain by number of collisions.
• Although its casualty numbers are amongst the lowest - 10th position out of 11 - when adjusted for population, it is the third worst (2430 casualties per million of population).
• It is also the third worst for numbers of people KSI and for KSI per million population

North East (England)
• The North East sees the lowest number of casualties and the lowest number of those killed or seriously injured for any region of Great Britain in 2019. Adjusted for population density, this record diminishes though, putting the region in 3rd best (out of the 11 regions) for casualties and 5th best for fatalities.

North West (England)
• The North West sees the second highest number of road collisions for any region of Great Britain.
• It is the region ranked third worst in Britain for numbers of casualties per 100 kilometres of roads.
• However, this is actually a reduction year on year - the North West sees the second best regional reduction in the rate of casualties (10.7% reduction).

West Midlands (England)
• West Midlands road users experience the second highest numbers of casualties, behind London.
• However, when adjusted for population, the West Midlands comes in 7th position.
• Despite high casualties, the West Midlands has the lowest rate of those killed or seriously injured when adjusted for population, at 321 KSI per million compared with South East England at 446 KSI per million.

South East (England)
• The South East sees the second highest number of collisions for any region in Britain (after London), with 18,355 in 2019.
• The South East has the highest numbers of road users killed or seriously injured - 4,077. The North East was the lowest, at 950.
• While the region has a large population compared with many others, the South East still comes out worst when adjusted for population: at 446 killed or seriously injured per million population, compared with 321/million for the region with the lowest figures (West Midlands).

London
• London is the worst region for casualties on the road: by number of casualties, casualties per million, and casualties per 100 km of roads.
• London also comes quite high up the list for numbers of those killed or seriously injured and KSI per million of population – second place and fourth place respectively.
• However, it is the best British region for fatalities on the road per million population – 13.5 compared with the East Midlands in last place at almost three times that number (38.3/million).


About Buchanan Computing
Buchanan Computing was established in 1997. The company is based in Hammersmith, London and specialises in software for traffic engineering and highway management and in web mapping, cloud computing and training.

It develops, supplies and supports systems for customers throughout the British Isles and is the foremost supplier to UK highway authorities of computer mapping (GIS), and software for the design and management of traffic regulation orders and traffic signs.

http://www.buchanancomputing.co.uk


Press contact:
Claire Kerr, Marketing/PR
claire@kerrmunications.co.uk|020 8681 1581

Company contact:
Umberto Musico, Consultant
Umberto.Musico@buchanancomputing.co.uk|020 8846 3220