Great Britain's most dangerous road announced

Monday, June 30, 2008

A 13km section of road between Macclesfield and Buxton, known as the Cat and Fiddle Road, has been named as Britain's most dangerous road. The single-carriageway road has been the scene of 43 fatal or serious collisions since 2001, nearly three-quarters of them involving motorcyclists.

When collisions involving motorcyclists are removed from the analysis, this 13km stretch moves from the highest risk road in the country to one of the safest. Overall, if motorcyclist collisions are removed from the league table, the A61 road between Barnsley and Wakefield is revealed as the most dangerous road in Britain.

Britain's most improved road in this year's analysis by the Road Safety Foundation is the A453 road from the A38 to Tamworth in Staffordshire. This rural single carriageway has seen an 88 per cent drop in the number of fatal or serious collisions in the last six years, taking it from a medium risk road to one of the safest. According to the Foundation, this has been achieved by introducing traffic lights, speed limit reductions and village pedestrian facilities.

However, EuroRAP — the European Road Assessment Programme — says that Britain is falling behind other European countries in reducing road casualties.

The most dangerous roads in Scotland and Wales were also revealed. In Scotland the most dangerous road was the 27km stretch of the A99 road between the A9 at Latheron and Wick. The A495 between Whitchurch and Welshampton was shown to be the most dangerous in Wales with 11 fatal and serious injury accidents.

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Sources

Unknown. "'Most Dangerous' Road Pinpointed" — BBC News Online, June 30, 2008
Road Safety Foundation. "GB Tracking Survey Results" — EuroRAP, June 30, 2008
Steve Farrell. "Motorcycles blamed for UK’s most dangerous road" — Motorcycle News, June 30, 2008
David Millward. "Britain's roads fall short in European study" — The Daily Telegraph, June 30, 2008

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