Scottish council · Scotland

Road risk in Dundee City

Dundee City ranks 52 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 61.4/100ONS code S12000042

Police recorded 138 injury collisions in Dundee City in 2025, hurting 172 people, of whom 51 were killed or seriously injured and 1 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 100.3 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 25% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 138 in 2025
People hurt: 172 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 51
Killed: 1
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 100.3 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 50.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 54 (recorded: 51)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 54 a year (recorded: 50.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 34.4 — rank 103
Population: 148,390
Risk score: 61.4/100 — rank 52 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 Dundee City

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 22.1%, with 2023 the worst year of the period at 139 collisions.

Collisions per year in Dundee City

2025: 138 (up 9.5% on the year before) · peak 139 in 2023 · +22.1% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Dundee City looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Dundee City ranks 103. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 52 — a difference of 51 places.

That gap is the signature of a place that absorbs other people’s traffic. Relative to the volume its roads carry, the harm done here is worse than the resident population suggests, which is the pattern you would expect where a trunk route, a commuter corridor or a visitor economy brings in drivers who are not counted in the denominator everyone else uses. 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 Dundee City

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 138 collisions in Dundee City, the three groups appear 68 times between them — an involvement rate of 49.3%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	37	26.8%
Cyclists	9	6.5%
Motorcyclists	22	15.9%

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 Dundee City

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Dundee City’s own shares over 403 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Dundee City	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	30.5%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	1.7%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	28.8%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	0.7%	1.4%	well below the national figure

On the darkness share, Dundee City ranks 46 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Dundee City run 3.8% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 108 collisions against 104.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Dundee City’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

Dundee City against similar authorities

A national rank compares Dundee City 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 Dundee City is 2 of 7 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 60.8.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Wirral	107.4	54.8	75
Dundee City (this page)	100.3	61.4	52
Plymouth	73.1	49.7	99
North Tyneside	60.8	48.6	104
Gateshead	54.3	24	184
Aberdeen City	46.1	45.7	123
Swansea	29	26.7	180

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

Dundee City against its closest comparators

Dundee City sits 52 of 192 nationally, and 2 of 26 within Scotland. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
50	Sutton	61.9	152.8
51	Barking and Dagenham	61.4	144.1
52	Dundee City (this page)	61.4	100.3
53	Bath and North East Somerset	60.9	77.4
54	Wakefield	60.8	103.4

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Dundee City, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Dundee City?

In the latest official DfT figures, 138 road collisions in Dundee City injured or killed 172 people, 51 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 100.3 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Dundee City 52 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 Dundee City rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Dundee City were up 22.1%, with 2023 the worst year of the period at 139 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 Dundee City's roads?

In Dundee City there were 37 collisions involving pedestrians, 9 involving cyclists and 22 involving motorcyclists, out of 138 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 49.3%, 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 Dundee City?

Dundee City 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 Dundee City

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Dundee City’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 16% of Dundee City'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 Dundee City are up 22% 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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