London borough · England

Road risk in Lambeth

Lambeth ranks 28 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 E09000022

Police recorded 938 injury collisions in Lambeth in 2025, hurting 1,051 people, of whom 187 were killed or seriously injured and 3 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 420.9 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 423% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 938 in 2025
People hurt: 1,051 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 187
Killed: 3
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 420.9 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 180.7 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 197 (recorded: 187)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 188.7 a year (recorded: 180.7)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 59.5 — rank 11
Population: 314,298
Risk score: 66.3/100 — rank 28 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 Lambeth

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 21.7%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 1,198 collisions.

Collisions per year in Lambeth

2025: 938 (up 7.3% on the year before) · peak 1,198 in 2021 · -21.7% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Lambeth looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Lambeth ranks 11. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 28 — a difference of 17 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Lambeth 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 Lambeth

7.95

offences per 1,000 residents

2,520

offences recorded, 12 months

of 287 areas, worst first

Lambeth recorded 7.95 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, above the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 2,520 offences and a population of 316,900 (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 Lambeth

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 938 collisions in Lambeth, the three groups appear 722 times between them — an involvement rate of 77%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	174	18.6%
Cyclists	378	40.3%
Motorcyclists	170	18.1%

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 Lambeth

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Lambeth’s own shares over 2,856 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Lambeth	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	32%	28.7%	above the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	0.8%	6.3%	a small fraction of the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	17.4%	24.5%	below the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	0.3%	1.4%	a small fraction of the national figure

On the darkness share, Lambeth ranks 27 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Lambeth run 18.3% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 661 collisions against 809.

What this does not tell you

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

Lambeth against similar authorities

A national rank compares Lambeth 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 Lambeth is 2 of 10 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 249.2.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Southwark	480.8	74.4	7
Lambeth (this page)	420.9	66.3	28
Hammersmith and Fulham	364.6	67.9	25
Wandsworth	340.3	64.6	35
Lewisham	291.4	73.7	8
Merton	207	68.5	23
Greenwich	145.5	60	58
Hounslow	133.6	66	31
Kingston upon Thames	101.8	49.8	98

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

Lambeth against its closest comparators

Lambeth sits 28 of 192 nationally, and 28 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
26	Portsmouth	67.4	119.4
27	Brighton and Hove	66.7	206.5
28	Lambeth (this page)	66.3	420.9
29	Blackburn with Darwen	66.3	234.5
30	North East Lincolnshire	66.1	150.1

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Lambeth, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Lambeth?

In the latest official DfT figures, 938 road collisions in Lambeth injured or killed 1,051 people, 187 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 420.9 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Lambeth 28 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 Lambeth rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Lambeth were down 21.7%, with 2021 the worst year of the period at 1,198 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 Lambeth's roads?

In Lambeth there were 174 collisions involving pedestrians, 378 involving cyclists and 170 involving motorcyclists, out of 938 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 77%, 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 Lambeth?

Lambeth is a london borough, 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 Lambeth

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

Helmet camera

£50–£200

40% of collisions in Lambeth involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.

How it works →

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 18% of Lambeth'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 →

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