Why does Yorkshire keep garnering all the least covetable of motor claims related statistical distinctions these days? First it was all that stuff about crash for cash in Bradford, now it seems Bankstone News shares its home country with some of Britain’s most dangerous A-roads and motorways.
Dr Joanne Hill, director of charity the Road Safety Foundation reckons “the UK’s highest-risk roads are single-carriageways, and eight out of 10 of the persistently higher risk roads are in the North of England,” with Sheffield, Yorkshire and Humberside all singled out for censure. Nearly 60% of Britain’s A-roads, and 25% of motorways are unsafe, the RSF claims.
The very worst section of A-road in the country, however, is in Cheshire. A 12km stretch of road between Macclesfield and Buxton, can now claim to be Britain’s most dangerous road following an impressive 42% increase in fatal and serious collisions over the past year. Of the 27 fatal and serious accidents on this stretch of road, 18 involved motorcyclists.
If you take motorcycles out of the equation, Britain’s most dangerous stretch of tarmac – just up the road from Bankstone News – though not in Yorkshire – is the 6.5km stretch of the A675 between Higher Walton and the M65 (J3).
Having mapped 45,000km of the country;s motorways and A-roads, the RSF has found that more than half the UK’s road deaths are concentrated on 10% of roads – with poor road design the principle culprit.
“Motorways and primary A-roads are the ones drivers use to travel longer journeys, such as for holidays or for long-distance haulage,” comments Dr Hill, “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 represent the highest risk, accounting for 62% of road deaths.”
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