The Ins and Outs of Car Accidents in the UK

Analysis of government data regarding car accidents reveals interesting statistics about which cars are most accident-prone.

Plus, it also illustrates other insights such as the locations in which most car accidents happen.

The analysis compared the number of recorded crashes in 2016 with the number of each car registered.

Which makes and models are prone to car accidents?

The Toyota Prius is the model that unfortunately attracts the most accidents on the roads. The research discovered that for every 10,000 Prii (official plural of Prius) on the road, 111 are involved in a car crash.

In 2016, there was over 71,000 of these eco-friendly motors driving around and 787 faced an accident.

The Citroen Saxo and BMW 330D followed closely behind with 106 and 102 crashes respectively per 10,000 registered cars.

In terms of brand, Vauxhall comes off worst, with 22,490 car accidents in 2016. This accounts for 62 crashes per 10,000 registered in the UK.

Age of drivers involved in car accidents

Although young drivers have a bad reputation for recklessness on the roads, the study found that they aren’t actually involved in the most car accidents.

It’s those in the 26-35 age group that are most accident-prone, accounting for 23.94% of UK car crashes.

20.5% of accidents involve those in the 16-25 age group. Interestingly, after those first two groups, the percentage of the total accidents decreases as the age group increases.

Jill Smith, Paralegal in the Personal Injury team at Wosskow Brown, says she would’ve thought the younger age group is the most accident-prone.

“This seems to show the introduction of black boxes to younger drivers may be improving speed awareness, resulting in less accidents in this age group”, she said.

Over 75s account for just 4.14% of car accidents in the UK. However, this may be because less elderly people drive cars compared to younger people. Retirement is often the point at which most people stop driving, as there is no requirement to get to work. Plus, capacity to drive safely can decrease as people become old.

Which regions of the UK see the most car accidents?

Rather unsurprisingly, Londoners are more prone to bumps on the road than citizens of other regions.

For every 10,000 motors in the capital, 101 were in an accident in 2016. In the City of London borough, this statistic is even more shocking, as the figure rockets up to 1200 accidents per 10,000 cars.

Aside from London, the North is most prolific for car crashes, unfortunately.

The accident rate in Yorkshire and The Humber is 47 in 10,000 cars, followed by the North West where the rate is 42 in 10,000.

The South West sees a much lower rate at just 32, which therefore suggests safer roads.

Our neighbouring country of Wales sees an impressively low rate of 30, while Scotland prevails supreme with the lowest accident rate in the UK at just 29 in 10,000.

Car accidents by speed limit zones

You’d probably expect motorways to be the hotspots for car accidents, right?

Wrong.

A staggering 79,569 car crashes occurred in 30mph zones in 2016, which is almost 10 times the number of crashes in 70mph zones. This certainly isn’t a statistic we’d expect…

It’s down to the media; we don’t hear about crashes in 30mph zones on the news or in the papers. They prefer to report high-speed accidents on motorways because they tend to be more serious and unfortunately involve people dying sometimes.

Jill shared her thoughts on this and said: “It’s an interesting statistic that the large majority of accidents happen in 30mph zones.

“Definite food for thought for the introduction of 20mph zones in many highly pedestrianised areas. This could see a reduction in these accidents.”

Additionally, roads with a speed limit of 50mph see the lowest number of accidents, with just over 5000 in 2016.