Scottish council · Scotland

Road risk in South Ayrshire

South Ayrshire ranks 115 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 47.3/100ONS code S12000028

Police recorded 86 injury collisions in South Ayrshire in 2025, hurting 110 people, of whom 44 were killed or seriously injured and 2 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 66.2 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 18% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 86 in 2025
People hurt: 110 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 44
Killed: 2
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 66.2 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 37 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 50 (recorded: 44)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 44.3 a year (recorded: 37)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 39.2 — rank 79
Population: 112,280
Risk score: 47.3/100 — rank 115 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 South Ayrshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 24.6%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 86 collisions.

Collisions per year in South Ayrshire

2025: 86 (up 32.3% on the year before) · peak 86 in 2025 · +24.6% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

South Ayrshire looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and South Ayrshire ranks 79. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 115 — a difference of 36 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, South Ayrshire 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 South 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 South Ayrshire, the three groups appear 37 times between them — an involvement rate of 43%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	19	22.1%
Cyclists	3	3.5%
Motorcyclists	15	17.4%

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 South Ayrshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are South Ayrshire’s own shares over 217 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	South Ayrshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	27.6%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	12.4%	6.3%	roughly double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	27.2%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.8%	1.4%	above the national figure

On the darkness share, South Ayrshire ranks 102 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in South Ayrshire run 30% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 49 collisions against 70.

What this does not tell you

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

South Ayrshire against similar authorities

A national rank compares South 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 South Ayrshire is 7 of 11 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 66.7.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Carmarthenshire	123.9	63.2	42
North Ayrshire	88.2	49.1	102
Cumberland	82	54.5	76
South Lanarkshire	71.9	45.8	122
Angus	66.7	33.6	162
South Ayrshire (this page)	66.2	47.3	115
East Ayrshire	60.9	53.7	80
Monmouthshire	51.5	35.6	157
Stirling	50.3	27.3	179

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

South Ayrshire against its closest comparators

South Ayrshire sits 115 of 192 nationally, and 11 of 26 within Scotland. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
113	North Lincolnshire	47.7	83.6
114	Ceredigion	47.5	150.9
115	South Ayrshire (this page)	47.3	66.2
116	Dudley	47.2	92.5
117	Sunderland	47.1	68.6

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in South Ayrshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in South Ayrshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 86 road collisions in South Ayrshire injured or killed 110 people, 44 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 66.2 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing South Ayrshire 115 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 South Ayrshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in South Ayrshire were up 24.6%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 86 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 South Ayrshire's roads?

In South Ayrshire there were 19 collisions involving pedestrians, 3 involving cyclists and 15 involving motorcyclists, out of 86 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 43%, 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 South Ayrshire?

South 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 South Ayrshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from South 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 17% of South 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 South Ayrshire are up 25% 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 →

We are a data business, not a retailer: these link to our guides, which link on to retailers. Some of those links earn us a small commission at no cost to you, and we hold no stock and take no payment for placement. All security guides.

Keep exploring