Croydon has the most dangerous roads in outer London according to the latest traffic incident figures, with almost twice as many deaths or serious injuries caused in collisions than other boroughs around the fringes of the capital.
Collision central: this crash on Wellesley Road last November was one of 162 recorded in Croydon in 2021
Westminster and Lambeth are the boroughs with London’s highest number of collisions, each recording 221 deaths or serious injuries in 2021.
In Wandsworth, the figure was 174, and in Southwark it was 167. All four are regarded as inner London boroughs.
Croydon’s collisions in 2021 reached 162, nearly 100 incidents more than neighbouring outer London boroughs Merton (75) or Sutton, which with 65 incidents is among the least dangerous boroughs.
Another neighbouring borough, Bromley, recorded 109 road traffic collisions in 2021.
The research by car insurance price comparison site Forbes Advisor also compared the total number of road casualties in each local authority in Britain in 2021 with each area’s population to reveal the rate of deaths or serious injuries per 100,000 people.
The results show Powys as having the most dangerous roads in Britain, with 101 deaths or serious injuries per 100,000 people in 2021.
The City of Westminster, with a rate of 81.9 per 100,000 people, ranks fourth nationally and makes it the most incident-prone part of London. Lambeth’s equivalent rate is 68.7 per 100,000 people.
Croydon’s population-related figure is 41.7, placing the borough 10th among authorities in the capital, with only Richmond among other outer London boroughs (100 incidents/50.5 per 100,000) having a higher rate of collisions per population.
Merton’s ratio of collisions to population was 36.3, while Bromley’s was 32.8 and Sutton was 31.8.
In Bath and North-east Somerset, there were just 18 road collisions in 2021, a rate of just 9.3 per 100,000 population, giving it officially some of the safest roads in the country.
All figures were sourced from the Office for National Statistics.
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It’s hardly surprising considering the volume of traffic and the poor road light changes that have been made through the centre of Croydon
Or the amount of speeding and the volume of drivers who use their phones when at the wheel.
That’s interesting. How much of the speeding is in the new(ish) 20mph speed zones introduced by the Council? And how much is committed by ‘boy racers’, who are the bane of the lives of all the residents of my (heavily parked) road?
And does Croydon really have an unusually high incidence of accidents caused by phone usage? It’s not something that I have noticed.
No figures for that, Martin.
Just anecdotal observations from countless readers: the 20mph roads have rarely, if ever, been subject to any enforcement, where the speed limit appears for many drivers – even bus drivers – to be an optional extra.
Again, mobile phone use by drivers is barely policed, and is based on observations of other drivers, as well as pedestrians who often take their lives in their hands if using zebra crossings and dare interrupt someone’s phone call…
Actually quite a few people have been fined on the London Road past the pond going to Norbury. The ANPR camera is quite hidden behind the trees as is the signage. More to the point the normal consideration in the process of 10% + 2 is not being considered by the Metropolitan Police or Croydon so if you are doing 22 23 24 mph you will get a letter and face the full process as quite a number have found to their cost already. I believe this is going to be the case for all those ANPRs but have not had this confirmed yet. There have despite this been many incidents daily on Headcorn, Leaner and Galpins road of speeding at over 30mph in a 20mph zone with cars parked both sides of the road and quite a lot of near miss incidents and loss of mirrors(not stopping to give details obviously) along with cars with number plates removed and one placed in the windscreen but with a piece of paper obscuring a few digits to escape a ticket and parking fine on Galpins road also.
Strange – there are at least 20+ a day on their phones on St James road and the London road. Cars regularly drive at 30+ on Wellington Elmwood Lodge and the side roads of the London road to escape the LTN transferred gridlock in rat runs that mostly do not work. Daily Mexican standoffs and today a woman stopped in the middle of a junction got out of her car and berated the drive behind – not sure why but the tailback went over Sumner road and back to the London Road but hey the Articulated lorry that parked and occupied one lane as he was on the phone may have contributed to that – but at least he stopped before the Zebra crossing.
You are right about the phones – but there is also the food, drinks and any number of other distractions where drivers just do not care about what is in front of them.
There is a wealth of evidence showing that the increases from 2004 and the transfer of powers to civil authorities is is a major cause of that rise along with the failures of authorities to act in a preventative manner and instead use ANPR which is unsuitable for dangerous, erratic and unsociable drivers of which we in Croydon appear to have more than normal.
On the plus side Steve, it’s good for the funeral business
In certain areas, notably the Wellesley Road underpass and the Fairfield roundabout, there is a lot of traffic crammed into a small space, and large numbers of people seem to believe that the correct response is to drive faster than Lewis Hamilton.
Sadly, the agressive ones end up crashing not just into walls and roundabouts, but into people**.
** Those are the soft , fleshy things inside the car that has been crashed into– or on the bike that has been knocked down and flattened. Sometimes they get badly injured, or killed.
Ha Ha Lewis you are quite correct. From Newgate to the Fairfield halls is a bit like a bleep test for cars – who can accelerate the fastest from light to light with the most noise. Had one guy a decade ago drive like a manic switching lanes at over 50 until he came up against the back of a bus. Sadly he swerved and caned my passenger side that had my wife and daughter in.
I was lucky that I could control the car and stopped it going onto the tram track in front of a tram. Lucky also I had dash cams as he even denied what he did. Police not interested in his aggression and threats nor his dangerous driving.
Many car drivers & their large, noisy, polluting child killing machines are out of control. Western civilisation has pandered to them for too long. Narrow the roads for cars & build safe protected cycle lanes. Increase fuel duty. Create more LTNs & CPZs. More 20mph roads.
But not so good for the NHS unless they are killed instantly ?!