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Prang finder site reveals accident blackspots

Road crash map from gobbled UK gov data

Web coders have plotted a map of UK road crashes using data pulled via the Department of Transport's API.

Launched on 27 September, CrashMap is the first application to make use of the Road Accidents and Safety dataset that was released on 30 June this year.

CrashMap is listed on the data.gov.uk site as "the only up-to-date online map of the UK crash database". It's a road equivalent to the police's crime map released earlier this year.

Older maps exist, though this seems to be the most comprehensive to date and it contains over a million incidents. The map lists incidents as slight, serious or fatal and has data from between 2005 and 2010. Data for 2011 will be added when the department releases it.

Users can rove around the map or search for areas by postcode.

It's not pin-point accurate: "Incidents are plotted to within 10 metres of their location and as such, can sometimes appear to be off the carriageway," explains their site.

One other limitation is that that you need to be zoomed in close to see the pins.

CrashMap was created by small British company, Campsall Owen, which focuses on road safety. The site sells PDFs of more detailed road accident data as a revenue stream. ®

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