Accident hotspots in Wakefield: where crashes cluster
Police recorded 300 road collisions in Wakefield in 2025. We mapped every one to find the junctions and roads where they concentrate.
65.9
Road Risk Score
Wakefield ranks 24 of 125 towns we score — band D, above average
70.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents, 251.5 vehicle crimes per 100,000, 39.3% of collisions involving someone outside a car, and a five-year trend of +13.6%. How the score works.
Vulnerable road users in Wakefield (2025)
69 of Wakefield's 300 collisions (23%) involved pedestrians; 23 of Wakefield's 300 collisions (8%) involved cyclists; 26 of Wakefield's 300 collisions (9%) involved motorcyclists. Together those collisions left 38 people killed or seriously injured.
| Road user | Collisions | Share of all collisions | Killed or seriously injured | Serious-outcome rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 69 | 23% | 24 | 35% |
| Cyclists | 23 | 8% | 7 | 30% |
| Motorcyclists | 26 | 9% | 7 | 27% |
47 of Wakefield’s collisions in 2025 involved a child casualty.
Wakefield’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
Wakefield recorded 300 police-reported collisions in 2025 — falling (-5.1% on 2024), or about 303 per 100,000 residents. Its most stubborn risk is A638, Belle Isle, a hotspot in 4 of the last 5 years.
300
Collisions in Wakefield (2025)
387
People injured or killed
-5.1%
Change vs 2024
~330
Modelled collisions in 2026 on current trend
Wakefield’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.
A638, Belle Isle
A638
16 collisions across 4 hotspot years · 18 casualties · 2 serious or fatal
Wakefield’s worst accident spots
| # | Location | Road | Collisions | Casualties | Serious | Fatal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A638, Belle Isle | A638 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Denby Dale Road, Crigglestone | A636 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Lofthouse Interchange | M62 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Rothwell Interchange, Rothwell | A642 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Albion Court, Thornes | A642 | 3 | 5 | 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, Wakefield’s rate of 303 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 Wakefield in 2025: 69 collisions involved a pedestrian, 23 a cyclist and 26 a motorcyclist — overall, 303 collisions per 100,000 residents.
Area definition: figures cover 6km radius of the town centre. 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.
Wakefield over 5 years
Collisions per year in Wakefield
2025: 300 (down 5.1% on the year before) · peak 339 in 2023 · +13.6% across the period
Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.
2023 was Wakefield’s worst year of the period with 339 collisions, against 264 in 2021. Of 2025’s 387 casualties, 70 were killed or seriously injured (3 deaths, 67 serious).
Build the Wakefield 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 300 road collisions in Wakefield in 2025, injuring or killing 387 people (DfT STATS19).
- “2023 was Wakefield's worst year of the last 5 (339 collisions, against 264 in 2021).
- “Wakefield's collision rate is 303 per 100,000 residents, against an average of 220 across the 125 areas we track.
- “69 collisions involved pedestrians, 23 collisions involved cyclists, 26 collisions involved motorcyclists — with 38 of those people killed or seriously injured.
- “47 collisions in Wakefield 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.
How Wakefield compares nationally
Wakefield is the highway authority for these roads, which means the same body counted in the national comparison below is the one that maintains them.
Per mile driven
54 of 192
Per resident
47 of 188
Risk band
Above average
Five-year trend
up 14.9%
The full record for Wakefield — 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.
Wakefield’s full road risk record →What actually changes the odds in Wakefield
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Wakefield’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.
Faraday key pouch / box
£9–£25
Wakefield records 252 vehicle crimes per 100,000 residents, above the median of the towns we track. Keyless relay theft is the leading route into modern cars, and a signal-blocking pouch ends that method outright for under a tenner.
How it works →
Steering wheel lock
£40–£70
Vehicle theft is target selection: thieves work a street and take the easiest car. A visible attack-rated bar moves your car down that list before anyone touches it.
How it works →
OBD port lock
£25–£50
Where theft rates run above average, key-cloning through the diagnostic socket tends to follow. A £25 steel case blocks the socket the programmer needs.
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 →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.