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Road collisions in Swale

Police recorded 1,564 road collisions involving injury in Swale between 2021 and 2025, about 313 a year. 22 of them were fatal, and an estimated 352 involved serious injury once DfT's severity adjustment is applied. These are reported injury collisions only: damage-only incidents and unreported injuries are not included.

1,564reported collisions, 2021 to 2025
313a year on average
22fatal
352serious (estimated)
2,155casualties

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When collisions happen

The busiest hour was 5pm to 6pm, and 30% of collisions happened between 3pm and 7pm (fewer than the 32% across Great Britain). Friday had the most collisions, and 25% happened at weekends.

00: 24 00 01: 17 02: 7 03: 12 03 04: 16 05: 14 06: 39 06 07: 81 08: 128 09: 64 09 10: 67 11: 74 12: 97 12 13: 98 14: 92 15: 129 15 16: 111 17: 143 18: 88 18 19: 78 20: 56 21: 58 21 22: 44 23: 27
Collisions by hour of day (00 = midnight to 1am)
Sun: 190 190 Sun Mon: 220 220 Mon Tue: 230 230 Tue Wed: 234 234 Wed Thu: 223 223 Thu Fri: 270 270 Fri Sat: 197 197 Sat
Collisions by day of week

Trend over time

Reported collisions went from 339 in 2021 to 277 in 2025, a fall of 18%. Counts are affected by traffic levels, population and changes in how police record injuries, so Swale should not be ranked against other areas on these numbers alone.

2021: 339 339 2021 2022: 350 350 2022 2023: 324 324 2023 2024: 274 274 2024 2025: 277 277 2025
Reported collisions per year

Who is affected

Across Swale, 2,155 people were injured or killed in these collisions. Pedestrians were 11% of casualties (14% across Great Britain), pedal cyclists 5% (12%) and motorcyclists 10% (12%). Car and taxi occupants made up 67%. 6 of the pedestrians were killed.

Children aged 0 to 15 were 10% of casualties, close to the 9% national share. People aged 16 to 25 were 24% (21% nationally), and people over 65 were 10% (10% nationally).

Road userCasualtiesShare in SwaleShare across GB
Pedestrians24111.2%14.5%
Pedal cyclists1115.2%11.9%
Motorcyclists21510.0%12.4%
Car and taxi occupants1,44467.0%54.4%
Bus and minibus occupants150.7%1.8%
Van and goods vehicle occupants974.5%3.5%
Other road users321.5%1.6%

Casualties by age

AgeCasualtiesShare in SwaleShare across GB
0 to 5442.1%1.6%
6 to 10582.8%2.6%
11 to 151034.9%4.8%
16 to 2027913.4%10.6%
21 to 2524411.7%11.0%
26 to 3539418.9%20.8%
36 to 4532115.4%15.8%
46 to 5523711.4%12.8%
56 to 651868.9%10.1%
66 to 751286.2%5.3%
Over 75874.2%4.5%

Vehicles involved

14.8% of collisions involved a pedestrian casualty (17.7% nationally), 7.1% a cyclist (15.0%) and 12.9% a motorcyclist (15.3%). 5.6% involved a goods vehicle (3.9% nationally) and 26.2% involved a driver aged 17 to 24 (21.1%). 19 collisions involved an e-scooter.

VehicleVehiclesShare in SwaleShare across GB
Cars and taxis2,20174.7%69.7%
Vans (up to 3.5 tonnes)2448.3%6.4%
Heavy goods vehicles933.2%2.3%
Motorcycles2097.1%9.3%
Pedal cycles1143.9%8.7%
Buses and minibuses220.7%1.8%
Other vehicles622.1%1.8%

Collision hotspots in Swale

These are the 100 metre squares with the most reported collisions in 2021 to 2025. Location is the average position of the collisions in each square, so treat it as approximate.

#Main roadJunction typeCollisionsFatalMap
1 A2 Not at a junction 10 0 View on map
2 A2 Roundabout 9 0 View on map
3 A2 Not at a junction 8 0 View on map
4 A2 Roundabout 7 0 View on map
5 B2008 Not at a junction 6 1 View on map
6 A2500 T or staggered junction 6 0 View on map
7 A249 Roundabout 6 0 View on map
8 A251 T or staggered junction 6 0 View on map
9 A2 Roundabout 6 0 View on map
10 A2 Crossroads 6 0 View on map
11 A250 T or staggered junction 6 0 View on map
12 Unnumbered road Not at a junction 6 0 View on map
13 A2 Not at a junction 6 0 View on map
14 A249 Crossroads 5 0 View on map
15 B2006 Roundabout 5 0 View on map
16 B2006 Roundabout 5 0 View on map
17 A2 T or staggered junction 5 0 View on map
18 A249 Not at a junction 5 0 View on map
19 A2 Not at a junction 5 0 View on map
20 B2040 T or staggered junction 5 0 View on map
21 Unnumbered road Not at a junction 5 0 View on map
22 A250 Not at a junction 5 0 View on map
23 A249 Roundabout 5 0 View on map
24 Unnumbered road Not at a junction 5 0 View on map
25 A2 T or staggered junction 5 0 View on map

Numbered roads with the most collisions

55% of collisions happened on roads with a 30 mph limit or lower (69% nationally), and 31% on roads with a 60 or 70 mph limit (18% nationally). 35% were at or within 20 metres of a junction or roundabout, lower than the national 54%.

RoadCollisionsFatalSerious (est.)
A2 266 2 46
M2 132 3 38
A249 102 2 27
A250 64 0 15
B2006 49 0 11
A2500 46 0 11
B2231 38 2 13
A251 31 2 11
B2008 30 2 11
B2005 20 2 5
A299 20 1 7
B2040 19 0 6
B2007 12 0 3
B2041 8 0 2
B2045 5 1 2

Collisions on unnumbered local streets are not listed here. Use the postcode search to see them.

Conditions

26% of collisions in Swale happened in darkness, lower than the 28% across Great Britain. 46% happened on roads classed as urban, lower than the national 67%.

Type of road

Type of roadCollisionsShare in SwaleShare across GB
Motorway 132 8.4% 3.0%
A(M) road 0 0.0% 0.2%
A road 530 33.9% 44.0%
B road 181 11.6% 12.5%
C road 0 0.0% 4.4%
Unclassified road 721 46.1% 35.9%

Speed limit

Speed limitCollisionsShare in SwaleShare across GB
20 mph 69 4.4% 17.1%
30 mph 793 50.7% 52.0%
40 mph 141 9.0% 8.7%
50 mph 78 5.0% 4.4%
60 mph 233 14.9% 12.2%
70 mph 250 16.0% 5.5%

Junctions

JunctionsCollisionsShare in SwaleShare across GB
Not at a junction 1,010 64.9% 45.9%
T or staggered junction 323 20.8% 28.5%
Crossroads 53 3.4% 9.5%
Junction with more than four arms 27 1.7% 1.6%
Private drive or entrance 11 0.7% 2.2%
Other junction 60 3.9% 6.1%
Roundabout 72 4.6% 6.2%

Light conditions

Light conditionsCollisionsShare in SwaleShare across GB
Daylight 1,159 74.1% 71.7%
Darkness, street lights lit 222 14.2% 20.6%
Darkness, street lights unlit 10 0.6% 0.7%
Darkness, no street lighting 132 8.4% 5.3%
Darkness, lighting unknown 41 2.6% 1.7%

Urban or rural

Urban or ruralCollisionsShare in SwaleShare across GB
Urban 714 45.7% 67.2%
Rural 850 54.3% 32.8%

About these figures

Only collisions involving injury that were reported to the police are counted. The figures are not adjusted for traffic volume or population, so they should not be used to rank areas against each other. Serious and slight splits use the Department for Transport's severity adjustment. Full explanation.