We originally published this last July, but we thought it was worth sending it out again. It shows the accidents on our roads from 2002 up to early 2011 (so recent accidents such as the two on Schools Hill or the one on Broadway aren’t yet included in the data).

We build up a lot of folk wisdom about which roads and junctions are dangerous, often based on one or two accidents we know about. This allows us to get an idea of how accurate those ideas are, and where the real accident hotspots are on our roads. Are they in the places we expect, or perhaps there’s a real danger spot that’s slipped by unnoticed.

With limited budgets and real issues, this sort of information can help us spend money where it’s most needed.

The DataGM site has collected data on all the road traffic accidents in Greater Manchester since 2002.

1 (red) = Fatal Accident: This is an accident in which at least one person is fatally injured, i.e., in which the person dies within thirty days of the accident as a result of injuries sustained.

2 (blue) = Serious Accidents: This is an accident in which nobody is fatally injured but at least one person is seriously injured, e.g., fracture, crushing, concussion. This category includes accidents in which casualties die on or after thirty days as a result of the accident.

3 (yellow) = Slight Accidents: This is an accident in which nobody is fatally or seriously injured but at least one person is slightly injured, e.g., sprains, bruises, minor cuts or slightly shock.

This map from the MEN shows all 75,000 incidents since 2002.

This map shows just the 630 fatal accidents.

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