An investment of around £200 million is urgently needed to tackle high risk sections of ‘A’ roads across the UK and reduce the number of people killed and injured on the roads.
Last year, the UK Government allocated a £175m Safer Roads Fund to tackle a portfolio of the 50 most dangerous local A roads in England – roads posing the highest risk of death and serious injury to users. These roads have been inspected, remedial proposals prepared and the first findings will be reported in 2018.
However, the report says that a further 6,111 kilometres on more than 550 sections of unacceptably high risk roads will need to be addressed by the Safer Roads Fund in the drive to bring road deaths towards zero.
Road Accident Statistics
According to the report:
- Britain’s highest risk road is the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton, known as the Cat and Fiddle, in the Peak District
- This year’s most improved road is the A4151 in Gloucestershire from Nailbridge to the A48
- Single carriageway ‘A’ roads are seven times the risk of motorways and nearly three times the risk of dual carriageway ‘A’ roads
- The largest single cause of death on the network was run-off road crashes (30%)
- The largest single cause of serious injury on the network was crashes at junctions (33%)
- High risk single carriageway roads are 67 times more risky than low risk single carriageways.
Figures published in the report show why improvements to road safety are so badly needed:
- The number of people killed on Britain’s roads increased by 4% from 1,730 in 2015 to 1,792 in 2016, the highest annual total since 2011
- On average, 71 people are killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads every day
- 51% of fatal casualties occurred on non-built-up roads – just 10% of the total road network
- 5% of fatal casualties occurred on motorways
- Road traffic crashes cost the British economy £36 billion.
The report has been funded by motor insurer, Ageas UK.
“Every day, Ageas deals with customers who have been involved in road crashes, and our employees support them through what can be a very distressing time,” commented Chief Executive, Andy Watson. “We want to help bring the number of road crashes towards zero.”
Reaction to the Report
Motoring organisation
RAC welcomed the publication of the report.
“This is a powerful road crash index which will help focus attention and investment where it can do most to improve road safety and save lives,” said RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams. “We applaud the Road Safety Foundation and Ageas for their innovative and systematic approach to mapping the UK’s most dangerous roads which will help Highways England and local authorities tackle the worst black spots and dangerous stretches of road.”
“After years of declining road fatality and casualty rates, we have seen these plateau over the last decade and 2016 saw the highest number of people killed on UK roads since 2011,” he added. “It is vital that we are never complacent about road casualties and continue to tackle the causes of life-changing accidents for the benefit of all society.”
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