Accident hotspots in Edinburgh: where crashes cluster
Police recorded 469 road collisions in Edinburgh in 2025. We mapped every one to find the junctions and roads where they concentrate.
31.3
Road Risk Score
Edinburgh ranks 111 of 125 towns we score — band B, below average
28.3 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents, 58.6% of collisions involving someone outside a car, and a five-year trend of -2.7%. How the score works.
Edinburgh ward by ward
Every fatal and serious collision in Edinburgh matched to its council ward: 779 people killed or seriously injured across 17 wards, with an interactive map, every collision plotted, the roads driving each ward’s total, and a CSV built for briefing notes. Written so a single page can be sent to a ward councillor.
Open the ward analysisVulnerable road users in Edinburgh (2025)
123 of Edinburgh's 469 collisions (26%) involved pedestrians; 106 of Edinburgh's 469 collisions (23%) involved cyclists; 46 of Edinburgh's 469 collisions (10%) involved motorcyclists. Together those collisions left 103 people killed or seriously injured.
| Road user | Collisions | Share of all collisions | Killed or seriously injured | Serious-outcome rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 123 | 26% | 52 | 42% |
| Cyclists | 106 | 23% | 30 | 28% |
| Motorcyclists | 46 | 10% | 21 | 46% |
52 of Edinburgh’s collisions in 2025 involved a child casualty.
Edinburgh’s busiest collision clusters (2025)
Each circle is a ~100m cluster of police-reported collisions. Larger circles = more collisions; red = at least one death. Click a circle for details.
The short answer
Edinburgh recorded 469 police-reported collisions in 2025 — broadly flat year-on-year, or about 89 per 100,000 residents. Its most stubborn risk is Chambers Street, Abbeyhill, a hotspot in 4 of the last 5 years.
469
Collisions in Edinburgh (2025)
593
People injured or killed
-2.5%
Change vs 2024
~462
Modelled collisions in 2026 on current trend
Edinburgh’s junctions that stay dangerous
These locations recorded multiple collisions in at least four of the last five years (2021–2025) — a persistent pattern, not a one-off bad year.
Chambers Street, Abbeyhill
A7
9 collisions across 4 hotspot years · 9 casualties · 4 serious or fatal
Lothian Road, Haymarket
A8
9 collisions across 4 hotspot years · 9 casualties · 4 serious or fatal
Edinburgh’s worst accident spots
| # | Location | Road | Collisions | Casualties | Serious | Fatal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dundee Street, Fountainbridge | Local road | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Clermiston Road, Corstorphine | A8 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | East Suffolk Park, Newington | A701 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | Lothian Road, Tollcross | A700 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Telford Road, Drylaw/Telford | A902 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
What to do with this: if your regular routes cross the junctions above, they deserve extra care at peak times — these aren’t random locations, they’re where collisions repeat. For context, Edinburgh’s rate of 89 per 100,000 residents compares with an average of 220 across the 125 areas we track. A junction with a documented five-year history is also the strongest evidence a campaign can put in front of a councillor.
Vulnerable road users in Edinburgh in 2025: 123 collisions involved a pedestrian, 106 a cyclist and 46 a motorcyclist — overall, 89.2 collisions per 100,000 residents.
Area definition: figures cover Edinburgh council district (ONS). Per-100k rates use the mid-2023 ONS population estimate for the named town or district; where the area is radius-defined, treat the rate as indicative.
These figures come from the Department for Transport’s STATS19 dataset — every collision reported to the police in 2025 — clustered to roughly 100 metres and labelled via OpenStreetMap. Only police-reported incidents are included, so minor damage-only bumps are undercounted. See the full UK hotspots analysis for the national picture and methodology.
Need this cut a different way? A junction’s full history, cyclist or pedestrian casualties on their own, or a before-and-after on a scheme: we produce those, free for community groups, campaigners and journalists.
Edinburgh over 5 years
Collisions per year in Edinburgh
2025: 469 (down 2.5% on the year before) · peak 507 in 2022 · -2.7% across the period
Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.
2022 was Edinburgh’s worst year of the period with 507 collisions, against 450 in 2023. Of 2025’s 593 casualties, 149 were killed or seriously injured (4 deaths, 145 serious).
Build the Edinburgh story from this page
Every line below is computed from the official DfT STATS19 dataset and updates when new data is released — copy, check, publish. Free to use with a link to this page as the source.
- “Police recorded 469 road collisions in Edinburgh in 2025, injuring or killing 593 people (DfT STATS19).
- “2022 was Edinburgh's worst year of the last 5 (507 collisions, against 450 in 2023).
- “Edinburgh's collision rate is 89 per 100,000 residents, against an average of 220 across the 125 areas we track.
- “123 collisions involved pedestrians, 106 collisions involved cyclists, 46 collisions involved motorcyclists — with 103 of those people killed or seriously injured.
- “52 collisions in Edinburgh involved a child casualty in 2025.
Attribution: “Analysis by Swift Assist (swiftassistuk.co.uk) of DfT STATS19 data” with a link to this page. Methodology: how we process the data.
Edinburgh's roads are City of Edinburgh's responsibility
Collisions above are counted for Edinburgh. The body that maintains those roads, sets the speed limits and decides which junctions get fixed is City of Edinburgh — so that is the level at which the record can be compared with anywhere else in Britain.
Per mile driven
101 of 192
Per resident
143 of 188
Risk band
Below average
Five-year trend
down 2.7%
Those two numbers disagree, and that is the story. City of Edinburgh sits 143 of 188 measured per resident but 101 of 192 measured per mile actually driven — a gap of 42 places. Almost every published comparison quietly uses the per-head measure, which flatters places that carry a lot of through-traffic. On the measure that accounts for how much driving actually happens here, the record is worse than the usual figure suggests.
The full record for City of Edinburgh — severity-adjusted casualties, the breakdown of who is being hurt, the darkness and ice profile, and a comparison against its ONS statistical neighbours rather than the national average — is on its own page.
City of Edinburgh’s full road risk record →What actually changes the odds in Edinburgh
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Edinburgh’s own figures above, each with the number that prompted it. Every guide explains how the thing works before it suggests buying anything, and most cost less than a third of a typical insurance excess.
Helmet camera
£50–£200
23% of collisions in Edinburgh involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.
How it works →
Dashcam (parking mode)
£50–£150
26% of collisions here involve a pedestrian, and those are the cases most often argued over. Footage removes the argument.
How it works →
We are a data business, not a retailer: these link to our guides, which link on to retailers. Some of those links earn us a small commission at no cost to you, and we hold no stock and take no payment for placement. All security guides.
Related on Swift Assist
UK accident hotspots (national)
Britain's 20 worst collision clusters, mapped from official data.
Read more →Edinburgh collisions by ward
Ward-level analysis with every collision mapped, for councillors and campaigners.
Read more →Cyclist collision map (national)
Where cyclists are hurt across Britain, from the same records.
Read more →Free data for campaigners
Junction histories, corridor studies and custom cuts, free for community groups.
Read more →Need this data for your own work?
Site and junction reports from £95, next working day. Free for community groups, campaigners and journalists.