West Berkshire has been named as the safest place to drive in England according to a new study.
The study, which was carried out by car parts marketplace Ovoko, was compiled from historical data from the Department for Transport to see which UK areas had the lowest average collisions per billion vehicle miles between 2013 and 2022.
The first English area to feature on the list was West Berkshire. It came in fifth place with an average of 137.88 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
2018 was statistically the safest year in the district, with only 106 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
The study list was topped by Perth and Kinross in Scotland which was statistically found to be the UK’s safest area to drive in.
Between 2013 and 2022, there were, on average, 122.73 collisions per billion vehicle miles in the area. 2019 was found to have the lowest numbers, with 78 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
Coming in second was another Scottish area in the Shetland Islands, with an average of 127.25 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
The Shetlands’ safest year was found to be 2022, with just 43 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
Third place goes to Monmouthshire in Wales. It had 131.85 collisions per billion vehicle miles on average across the years recorded in the study.
Fourth place went to another Scottish area in Moray, with 132.79 collisions per billion vehicle miles.
When looking at all UK areas, on average, each area has had 454.56 collisions per vehicle miles over the period studied.
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for Ovoko said: “You might expect numbers to be at their lowest in 2020 and 2021, amongst COVID-19 lockdowns meaning fewer cars on the road overall.
“However, for many areas in this top ten, this is not the case.
“Another interesting thing to note is the drop off in collisions for many areas between 2021 and 2022, and it will be worth noting whether these numbers continue to drop into the 2020s, with the government’s attempted efforts to make roads safer.”
