While every road has risks, and defensive driving is the safest approach, there’s no postcode standardisation for risk.

New research has revealed the UK’s most dangerous areas to drive in outside of London.

One area ‘towers’ over the rest – Blackpool.

No dancing with joy

The study was undertaken by car parts marketplace Ovoko.

It uses historical data from the Department for Transport Statistics to see which UK areas had the highest average collisions per billion vehicle miles between 2013 and 2022.

Findings place theBlackpool area as statistically the UK’s most dangerous area to drive outside of London.

Between 2013 and 2022, there were, on average, 1,076.85 collisions per billion vehicle miles in the area.

A positive finding was that 2013 had the highest numbers – 1,289 collisions per billion vehicle miles – and since that point it has declined.

Not so dull

Coming in second is Hull, with an average of 927.39 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

The area’s most dangerous year was found to be 2013, with 1,051 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

Meanwhile in third place is the Luton area, registering 898.34 collisions per billion vehicle miles on average across the years recorded in the study.

These figures were highest in 2016, with 1,013 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

Don’t blame seagulls

But don’t think the South avoids the damaging results.

Fourth place goes to the South East area of Brighton and Hove, coming in with 885.30 collisions per billion vehicle miles on average.

Collisions were highest in 2014, making it the most dangerous year, with 982 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

Then, rounding out the top five is Bournemouth, coming in with 833.68 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

Again, 2014 was found to be the most dangerous year, with 984 collisions per billion vehicle miles.

When looking at all UK areas, on average, each area has had 454.56 collisions per billion vehicle miles over the period studied.

 

The UK’s top ten most dangerous driving areas (outside London)

Rank Area Region Average collisions per billion vehicle miles (2013-2022)
1 Blackpool North West 1,076.85
2 Kingston upon Hull Yorkshire and The Humber 927.39
3 Luton East of England 898.34
4 Brighton and Hove South East 885.80
5 Bournemouth South West 833.68
6 Southampton South East 832.96
7 Reading South East 807.12
8 Nottingham East Midlands 806.84
9 Blackburn with Darwen North West 805.86
10 Southend-on-Sea East of England 777.65

 

Capital concern

“While London may dominate the top ten for dangerous driving areas, to see how diverse the locations of the other dangerous areas are is interesting as well,” states a spokesperson for Ovoko “While many areas have also seen an improvement over the past 10 years for road safety, in some it is currently on the uptick when looking at the latest results from 2022, and it will be worth noting whether this trend continues into the 2020s.”