Scottish council · Scotland

Road risk in East Ayrshire

East Ayrshire ranks 80 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 53.7/100ONS code S12000008

Police recorded 86 injury collisions in East Ayrshire in 2025, hurting 115 people, of whom 33 were killed or seriously injured and 5 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 60.9 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 24% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 86 in 2025
People hurt: 115 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 33
Killed: 5
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 60.9 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 37.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 38 (recorded: 33)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 46 a year (recorded: 37.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 27.2 — rank 149
Population: 121,350
Risk score: 53.7/100 — rank 80 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 East Ayrshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 21.1%, with 2023 the worst year of the period at 103 collisions.

Collisions per year in East Ayrshire

2025: 86 (up 22.9% on the year before) · peak 103 in 2023 · +21.1% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

East Ayrshire looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and East Ayrshire ranks 149. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 80 — a difference of 69 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 East Ayrshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 86 collisions in East Ayrshire, the three groups appear 39 times between them — an involvement rate of 45.3%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	20	23.3%
Cyclists	6	7.0%
Motorcyclists	13	15.1%

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 East Ayrshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are East Ayrshire’s own shares over 259 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	East Ayrshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	24.7%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	12.7%	6.3%	roughly double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	35.1%	24.5%	well 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, East Ayrshire ranks 167 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in East Ayrshire run 31.6% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 54 collisions against 79.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of East Ayrshire’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

East Ayrshire against similar authorities

A national rank compares East Ayrshire 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 East Ayrshire is 9 of 10 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 71.1.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Carmarthenshire	123.9	63.2	42
Torfaen	89.3	58.9	64
North Ayrshire	88.2	49.1	102
Caerphilly	88.1	39.5	138
South Lanarkshire	71.9	45.8	122
County Durham	70.3	44.5	126
Fife	67.1	38.9	142
South Ayrshire	66.2	47.3	115
East Ayrshire (this page)	60.9	53.7	80

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

East Ayrshire against its closest comparators

East Ayrshire sits 80 of 192 nationally, and 7 of 26 within Scotland. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
78	Wolverhampton	54.2	108.1
79	Argyll and Bute	54.2	102.1
80	East Ayrshire (this page)	53.7	60.9
81	Suffolk	53.7	80.7
82	North Yorkshire	53.6	77.5

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in East Ayrshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in East Ayrshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 86 road collisions in East Ayrshire injured or killed 115 people, 33 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 60.9 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing East Ayrshire 80 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 East Ayrshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in East Ayrshire were up 21.1%, with 2023 the worst year of the period at 103 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 East Ayrshire's roads?

In East Ayrshire there were 20 collisions involving pedestrians, 6 involving cyclists and 13 involving motorcyclists, out of 86 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 45.3%, 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 East Ayrshire?

East Ayrshire 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 East Ayrshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from East Ayrshire’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 15% of East Ayrshire'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 East Ayrshire are up 21% 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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