IN THE there has been 660 casualties on the roads in Powys, the vast majority on single carriageways.

Data analysed from the Government's Department for Transport by price comparison site Uswitch, has looked at all casualties on UK roads over the last five years.

'Casualty' refers to someone who has either died or been seriously injured, as defined in the data - it doesn't include slight injuries.

It has found that there have been 660 casualties in Powys in the last five years.

And with 498.36 casualties per 100,000 residents it has the highest per capita rate of accidents in the country with the exception of central London, where the vast majority of people are non-residents.

Of these incidents, 45 involved pedestrians, 367 involved cars including taxis and minibuses, 34 involved cyclists and 176 involved motorcyclists.

In terms of age, 28 of those involved were under 16, there were 121 casualties in the 16-24 age group, 261 were aged 24-55, and 242 were 55 years-old or over.

The most common type of road the casualties occurred on were single carriageways, with 629 incidents, while there were seven incidents in one-way streets and 11 incidents on dual carriageways.

A total of 97 incidents in Powys happened at a 'T' or staggered junction.

Overall were 131,369 reported casualties on UK roads over the past five years.

Splitting this out by road users, car drivers and passengers were the largest group, with 48,963 casualties, followed by pedestrians with 29,517. Meanwhile, there were 28,671 reported casualties involving motorcyclists and 18,237 involving cyclists.

The majority of road accidents involve people aged between 24 and 55 years old, with 60,119 casualties reported over the past five years – 46 per cent of all recorded casualties. There was also quite a considerable gender split in the data, with 69 per cent of all reported accidents involving men, compared to just 31 per cent involving women.

More than 50 per cent of casualties on the road occur at speeds of just 21 – 30 mph, with T-junctions being the most dangerous type of junction, with 37,133 reported casualties over the past five years.

Uswitch used the Department for Transport's online road traffic tool to download data around casualties on UK roads by local authority for the period from 2015 - 2019. Data released in and accurate as of September 2020.

Data on locations and road user type is collected at the scene, and may not always be consistent. Data only includes cases that have been reported by the police - the true number of road casualties is more difficult to track, but estimates based on insurance claims and hospital data suggest the actual number is significantly higher.