We consider the Cucker–Smale flocking model with a singular communication weight with . We provide a critical value of the exponent in the communication weight leading to global regularity of solutions or finite-time collision between particles. For , we show that there is no collision between particles in finite time if they are placed in different positions initially. For we investigate a version of the Cucker–Smale model with expanded singularity i.e. with weight , . For such model we provide a uniform with respect to the number of particles estimate that controls the -distance between particles. In case of it reduces to the estimate of collision avoidance.