Scottish council · Scotland

Road risk in Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway ranks 119 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 47.1/100ONS code S12000006

Police recorded 222 injury collisions in Dumfries and Galloway in 2025, hurting 323 people, of whom 85 were killed or seriously injured and 12 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 63.5 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 21% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 222 in 2025
People hurt: 323 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 85
Killed: 12
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 63.5 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 78.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 105 (recorded: 85)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 89.7 a year (recorded: 78.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 58.4 — rank 12
Population: 145,490
Risk score: 47.1/100 — rank 119 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 Dumfries and Galloway

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 48.0%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 222 collisions.

Collisions per year in Dumfries and Galloway

2025: 222 (up 15.6% on the year before) · peak 222 in 2025 · +48% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Dumfries and Galloway looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Dumfries and Galloway ranks 12. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 119 — a difference of 107 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Dumfries and Galloway 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.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Dumfries and Galloway

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 222 collisions in Dumfries and Galloway, the three groups appear 70 times between them — an involvement rate of 31.5%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	26	11.7%
Cyclists	12	5.4%
Motorcyclists	32	14.4%

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 Dumfries and Galloway

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Dumfries and Galloway’s own shares over 601 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Dumfries and Galloway	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	27.8%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	21.5%	6.3%	more than three times the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	29%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	2%	1.4%	well above the national figure

On the darkness share, Dumfries and Galloway ranks 99 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Dumfries and Galloway run 11.4% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 155 collisions against 175.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Dumfries and Galloway’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

Dumfries and Galloway against similar authorities

A national rank compares Dumfries and Galloway 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 Dumfries and Galloway is 8 of 9 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 81.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Powys	161.2	65.7	32
Ceredigion	150.9	47.5	114
Carmarthenshire	123.9	63.2	42
Gwynedd	85.3	52.1	91
Scottish Borders	81.7	40.8	135
South Ayrshire	66.2	47.3	115
Moray	65.7	56.2	71
Dumfries and Galloway (this page)	63.5	47.1	119
Aberdeenshire	55.8	27.7	177

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

Dumfries and Galloway against its closest comparators

Dumfries and Galloway sits 119 of 192 nationally, and 12 of 26 within Scotland. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
117	Sunderland	47.1	68.6
118	North Somerset	47.1	59.8
119	Dumfries and Galloway (this page)	47.1	63.5
120	Derbyshire	46.5	79.2
121	Wigan	46	75

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Dumfries and Galloway, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Dumfries and Galloway?

In the latest official DfT figures, 222 road collisions in Dumfries and Galloway injured or killed 323 people, 85 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 63.5 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Dumfries and Galloway 119 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 Dumfries and Galloway rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Dumfries and Galloway were up 48.0%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 222 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 Dumfries and Galloway's roads?

In Dumfries and Galloway there were 26 collisions involving pedestrians, 12 involving cyclists and 32 involving motorcyclists, out of 222 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 31.5%, 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 Dumfries and Galloway?

Dumfries and Galloway is a scottish council, 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 Dumfries and Galloway

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Dumfries and Galloway’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 14% of Dumfries and Galloway'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

Collisions in Dumfries and Galloway are up 48% across the period. A dashcam with parking mode is the cheapest way to keep a disputed claim from becoming a 50/50 split.

How it works →

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