21/02/2002 EuroRAP & AA identify the killer roads - and the safest
The biggest study ever undertaken on the safety of Europe's roads has identified the most dangerous major road in Britain as the A889 near Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands.
Following 18 months of work, the AA-led EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) has given safety 'star ratings' to more than 800 major UK roads, and a further 2,000 in three other countries - the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain. The unique statistics will allow highways authorities and engineers to compare similar roads and identify the hidden killers among them. It is estimated that often simple improvements to those stretches that perform worse than average could save 2,400 people in Britain from death or serious injury each year. This is equivalent to more than a third of the fatal and serious accidents that happen on these roads.
Experts from 13 European nations and four governments have so far co-operated on the project, designed to help the EU in its aim to halve the number of people who die on Europe's roads each year by the end of this decade. The death toll is currently 40,000 a year, equivalent to an airline disaster happening every day. Britain, despite the best safety record.
Of the 833 roads assessed in the UK, 23 were so bad they achieved no stars in the ratings. 90 only received one-star, 213 two stars, 415 three stars, with 92 gaining the top four star rating. Roads with no stars have accident rates ten times higher than the best performing roads in the four star category. An average road scores between two and three stars.
The UK's worst roads are:
A889, between A9 and A86 near Dalwhinnie, The A889's accident rate was 14 times the average and included four serious injury crashes during the period. Part of the problem is the road's low usage, with just 310 cars per day travelling on it on an average day.
A537 Macclesfield to Buxton,
A12 Romford to M25,
A4137 between A49 and A40 near Ross-on-Wye,
A628 Penistone to A616, A1001 at Hatfield,
A534 Nantwich to the Welsh border,
A533 Runcorn to A56,
A682 Long Preston (A65) to M65,
A1306 Aveley to M25.
Report re-produced with the kind permission of EuroRAP & The AA 21/02/2002