When you imagine a road accident, it’s easy to picture something frightening at high speed. However, research from ChooseMyCar.com, using data from the Department for Transport has challenged this common perception. Using stats from 2018, it becomes clear that it’s more likely for an accident to happen at lower speeds. This doesn’t mean that accidents are less risky at higher speeds, but instead means that accidents are likelier at lower speeds. Below, we explore the type of roads that see the most accidents.
21-30 mph
Accidents are much more likely to be severe at higher speeds, but more accidents actually occur between 21 and 30 mph. Statistics from the Department of Transport for 2018 showed that 60 per cent of all accidents happened within this speed range – a total equating to 73,408 accidents, 567 of which were fatal.
51-60 mph
The speed range of 51 to 60mph experienced the second highest volume of accidents. However, this figure was significantly less than the 21 to 30mph range. In this range there were 15,299 crashes during 2018. Despite the lower volume, these accidents appeared to be much more dangerous due to the higher speeds. 542 of these incidents proved to be fatal – a tally narrowly less than the total for the 21-30 mph range.
1-20 mph
Plenty of accidents still occur at speeds below 20 mph. Nine per cent of all accidents for 2018 happened during these parameters. Not many of these accidents resulted in a fatality, but the danger is still there even at these speeds, bringing clearly into focus how dangerous cars can be even when you’re not on a motorway. 49 fatal accidents occurred at this range, a dramatic drop from even the total for 21 and 30 mph.
Motorways
You might initially imagine that most road accidents occur on the motorway, but this isn’t the case. 4556 accidents occurred on motorways during 2018. But even more striking is that just four per cent of total accidents and six per cent of fatal accidents occurred on motorways. This could be due to heightened safety awareness when people are driving on motorways or at high speed. Or it could be due to straighter, flatter roads with better lighting. Either way, motorways are actually usually a safe place to drive – as long as you adhere to the highway code.
Accidents can happen on any road. If you’ve suffered an injury in a car – even if it happened at a low speed – you shouldn’t feel as though your case won’t be heard. You can get in touch with personal injury lawyers to see if you might be entitled to compensation.
