Road safety incidents

Request data on road accidents, injuries, and locations.

Councils hold data on road traffic accidents reported in their area. You can use it to find out which roads and junctions have the most accidents.

Dear [AUTHORITY NAME], Please provide the following information for [CALENDAR YEAR e.g. 2024]: 1. The total number of road traffic accidents reported in the authority area. 2. A breakdown by severity (fatal, serious injury, slight injury). 3. The locations with the highest number of accidents (top 10 junctions or road sections). 4. For each of the top 10 locations, any speed survey data collected during the same period. I would prefer to receive this as a spreadsheet or CSV if possible. Yours faithfully, [YOUR NAME]
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Who to send it to#

Your local council’s roads or transport department. Find your council on the Commissioner’s directory of Scottish public authorities. You can also send your request through WhatDoTheyKnow, which publishes responses online.

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Tips#

  • Road accident data is recorded by calendar year, not financial year. Use January to December.
  • Transport Scotland publishes national road safety statistics. Check what is already available before requesting local data.
  • If you are concerned about a specific road or junction, name it in the request instead of asking for the top 10. This makes the request quicker to answer.
  • If the council says speed survey data is not available for those locations, it is still worth getting the accident data on its own.