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Road Safety Foundation Warns Over Safety Of British A Roads
Thu, 25 Jun 2009

More than half of Britain's A-roads and a quarter of motorways are unsafe, according to a new study.

A report by the Road Safety Foundation, which has been covering road risk levels for the last nine years, rated single-carriageway A-roads as the most dangerous roads in the country.

The survey of 28,000 UK roads and motorways found that 58 per cent of A-roads were either neutral or poor for safety .

One of the most dangerous roads in Britain remains the notorious 7.5 mile stretch of the A537 from Macclesfield in Cheshire to Buxton in Derbyshire, according to the report.

A total of 27 fatal or serious accidents occurred on this windy road, which is a favourite with motorcyclists, over the last twelve months – an increase of 42 per cent on the previous year.

The most dangerous stretch, excluding motorcyclists, was found to be the four miles of road between the A675 between Higher Walton and the M65 (J3) in Lancashire .

The Road Safety Foundation also noted that the 27-mile stretch of single carriageway on the A40 between Carmarthen and Llandovery in Wales is Britain’s most improved road, with the number of series accidents cut by 80 per cent thanks to measures such as resurfacing and improvements to junctions.

The latest survey from the Foundation, which includes all A-roads for the first time, received funding from the Department for Transport to help encourage improvements.

Dr Joanne Hill, director of the Road Safety Foundation, said: "Overwhelmingly, the UK’s highest-risk roads are single-carriageways."

"Motorways and primary A-roads are the ones drivers use to travel longer journeys, such as for holidays or for long-distance haulage.

"But it is the busy non-primary routes – the ones that take volumes of traffic at all hours between towns and villages across Britain – that the new survey shows represent the highest risk, accounting for 62 per cent of all road deaths."
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