Welsh roads are home to the some of Britain’s most dangerous drivers, reveals research by A-Plan Insurance .
While West Yorkshire is the country’s most dangerous region to drive in, the Welsh police forces’ areas pack into the top ten, led by South Wales.
The study by A-Plan Insurance divided England and Wales by police district and assessed the number of reported dangerous driving offences as a ratio of each district’s population. They do not, however, weigh the figures with the number of holidaymakers who travel into the regions.
There were 515,758 driving offences reported in England and Wales during 2020, of which 431,573 related to dangerous driving offences such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, use of a mobile device while driving and incidents causing death or injury.
West Yorkshire topped the list with a total of 34,862 dangerous driving offences reported, and a regional population of 2,332,500, which equates to an offence for every 67 people.
South Wales and Lincolnshire are also in the top three, with South Wales registering 19,707 offences across 1,339,400 citizens and Lincolnshire reporting 10,004 instances of dangerous driving over 761,200 residents.
UK’s Most Dangerous Area To Drive – Top 10
Dangerous Driving Offences | Population (as of 2020) | # people per offence | Percentage of accidents to population | Index Rank | |
West Yorkshire | 34,862 | 2,332,500 | 67 | 1.49% | 1 |
South Wales | 19,707 | 1,339,400 | 68 | 1.47% | 2 |
Lincolnshire | 10,004 | 761,200 | 76 | 1.31% | 3 |
Sussex | 20,129 | 1,712,100 | 85 | 1.18% | 4 |
Avon & Somerset | 19,053 | 1,719,000 | 90 | 1.11% | 5 |
Gwent | 6,574 | 594,200 | 90 | 1.11% | 6 |
West Mercia | 14,222 | 1,291,600 | 91 | 1.10% | 7 |
North Wales | 7,279 | 699,600 | 96 | 1.04% | 8 |
Lancashire | 15,125 | 1,508,900 | 100 | 1.00% | 9 |
Dyfed-Powys | 5,045 | 519,700 | 103 | 0.97% | 10 |
Among the UK’s safest regions to drive, Wiltshire tops the list with just 2,611 dangerous driving offences reported among a population of 722,200 residents – equivalent to and offence for every 277 people.