Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Blackburn with Darwen

Blackburn with Darwen ranks 29 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 66.3/100ONS code E06000008

Police recorded 286 injury collisions in Blackburn with Darwen in 2025, hurting 390 people, of whom 90 were killed or seriously injured and 6 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 234.5 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 191% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 286 in 2025
People hurt: 390 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 90
Killed: 6
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 234.5 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 96 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 99 (recorded: 90)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 106 a year (recorded: 96)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 54.9 — rank 18
Population: 163,801
Risk score: 66.3/100 — rank 29 of 192

Compiled by Stephen Hall, Data lead, Swift Assist. Source: DfT STATS19 and DfT road traffic estimates (2025), OGL v3. Updated 2026-10-08.

Direction of travel

Five years of collisions in Blackburn with Darwen

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 9.8%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 317 collisions.

Collisions per year in Blackburn with Darwen

2025: 286 (up 0.4% on the year before) · peak 317 in 2021 · -9.8% across the period

Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.

Two ways of measuring

Blackburn with Darwen looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Blackburn with Darwen ranks 18. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 29 — a difference of 11 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Blackburn with Darwen does less harm than its casualty count per resident implies. Places with heavy local travel and few through routes tend to look worse per head than the volume of driving warrants. Neither number is the true one. Which you should use depends on whether you are asking how safe it is to live somewhere or how safe it is to drive there.

Vehicle crime · year ending June 2026

Vehicle crime in Blackburn with Darwen

5.58

offences per 1,000 residents

906

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Blackburn with Darwen recorded 5.58 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 906 offences and a population of 162,500 (ONS mid-2024), both taken from the same ONS release. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables, year ending June 2026; police recorded crime collected by the Home Office.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Blackburn with Darwen

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 286 collisions in Blackburn with Darwen, the three groups appear 127 times between them — an involvement rate of 44.4%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	73	25.5%
Cyclists	24	8.4%
Motorcyclists	30	10.5%

A single collision can involve more than one of these groups and is then counted in each row, so the rows do not add up to a share of the total.

Darkness, weather and the time of year

When collisions happen in Blackburn with Darwen

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Blackburn with Darwen’s own shares over 868 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Blackburn with Darwen	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	28.9%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	5.6%	6.3%	below the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	29.2%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	2.7%	1.4%	roughly double the national figure

On the darkness share, Blackburn with Darwen ranks 72 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Blackburn with Darwen run 4.2% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 206 collisions against 215.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Blackburn with Darwen’s collisions — not that its roads are more dangerous overall. Read it alongside the casualties-per-mile-driven figure above.
Condition is recorded, not tested. The officer records the surface and light level at the scene. It is an observation, not a measurement, and it is not a finding that the condition caused the collision.
Exposure is not controlled for. Fewer people travel at 3am than at 3pm, so a collision in darkness is drawn from a smaller pool of journeys. Without hourly traffic counts, these shares describe when collisions happen rather than how risky an hour is.

Every authority compared on the same measures: winter road risk across Britain.

Benchmark

Blackburn with Darwen against similar authorities

A national rank compares Blackburn with Darwen with places that may be nothing like it. This is the comparison a council actually uses: its statistical nearest neighbours — the authorities ONS identifies as most similar on population, economy and demography, restricted to the same tier, so counties are compared with counties. Within this group Blackburn with Darwen is 1 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 105.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Blackburn with Darwen (this page)	234.5	66.3	29
Bradford	216.4	64.2	37
Wolverhampton	108.1	54.2	78
Oldham	105.7	51.7	93
Sandwell	101.4	52.5	88
Walsall	80.2	38.1	147
Bolton	79.4	39.3	139
Peterborough	69.8	50.5	97
Rochdale	62.6	29.8	169

Peer group: ONS statistical nearest neighbours, Open Government Licence v3. ONS notes the grouping is a snapshot that is not comparable with earlier editions, and is not a judgement about any authority’s performance. The road figures against it are ours.

National position

Blackburn with Darwen against its closest comparators

Blackburn with Darwen sits 29 of 192 nationally, and 29 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
27	Brighton and Hove	66.7	206.5
28	Lambeth	66.3	420.9
29	Blackburn with Darwen (this page)	66.3	234.5
30	North East Lincolnshire	66.1	150.1
31	Hounslow	66	133.6

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Blackburn with Darwen, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Blackburn with Darwen?

In the latest official DfT figures, 286 road collisions in Blackburn with Darwen injured or killed 390 people, 90 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 234.5 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Blackburn with Darwen 29 of 192 authorities on our combined score, where 1 is the highest risk. The score weighs that rate alongside who is being hurt, the five-year trend and how often a serious collision proves fatal, so the rank is not the rate alone.

Are road casualties in Blackburn with Darwen rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Blackburn with Darwen were down 9.8%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 317 collisions. Year-to-year movement in a single authority is noisy, so the five-year direction carries more than any single year's change.

Who is being hurt on Blackburn with Darwen's roads?

In Blackburn with Darwen there were 73 collisions involving pedestrians, 24 involving cyclists and 30 involving motorcyclists, out of 286 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 44.4%, though a collision involving two of those groups is counted in both figures, so it is a comparable index rather than a clean share.

Who is responsible for road safety in Blackburn with Darwen?

Blackburn with Darwen is a unitary authority, and is the highway authority for its own roads. That means it sets local speed limits, designs junctions and crossings, and decides safety scheme spending. Motorways and most trunk roads are managed separately by National Highways in England, Transport Scotland, or the Welsh Government, so the worst road in an area is often not the council's to change. Enforcement sits with the local police force.

Where does this data come from?

DfT STATS19, the record police complete at the scene of every injury collision, published annually under the Open Government Licence, combined with DfT's own road traffic estimates for the mileage denominator. Collision, casualty and KSI counts on this page are for 2025; only the trend compares 2021–2025. STATS19 counts collisions police attended and recorded, so collisions never reported do not appear, and under-reporting is known to be worst for cyclists and for slight injuries.

What this means for you

What actually changes the odds in Blackburn with Darwen

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Blackburn with Darwen’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.

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 10% of Blackburn with Darwen's collisions, and bikes are also lifted rather than ridden away. An alarmed disc lock covers the theft half for about £30.

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 →

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