Quiet rural A-roads more dangerous than motorways, says survey
The dangers for drivers on quiet rural A-roads in Shropshire and Mid Wales were today highlighted in a new study.
A Road Safety Foundation survey reveals the risk to motorists is seven times greater on single carriageway A-roads than motorways.
While 99 per cent of motorways are rated in the "'low risk" category, 97 per cent of single carriageway A-roads are not.
The overall risk of death and serious injury on motorways and A-roads is lowest in the West Midlands, where there is a high density of motorways.
But it rises significantly in regions like Shropshire and Mid Wales, where drivers rely almost exclusively on A-roads, with the two-lane M54 the only motorway section available.
The survey looked at motorways and A-roads outside major urban areas. These roads make up 11 per cent of the road network but 51 per cent of road deaths. The research showed that running off the road accounts for 30 per cent of all deaths on these roads and that junction crashes are the most common accidents leading to serious injury.
The survey also found that:
Travel on single carriageways is three times more risky than on dual carriageways;
21 per cent of fatal crashes and serious crashes on non-urban A-roads involve pedestrians or cyclists
In the last five years, Britain suffered serious crash costs of £1.9 billion on motorways, £8.4bn on primary A-roads and £5.9bn on non-primary A-roads.
Road Safety Foundation director Dr Steve Lawson said: "Most recent improvement in road safety has come from car design and safer driving. The specification that authorities currently set road managers is to reduce crash rates in general.
"That approach is too weak and must be replaced, because it muddles factors over which road managers have no control – such as car safety, hospital care and traffic levels – with factors very definitely under their control such as roadside safety barriers or junction layouts."
He went on: "Road managers need not only money, but the tools and goals to measure and manage infrastructure safety. Many proposals in the Government's Action for Roads are sound, but there is need now to focus on improving infrastructure safety itself in a measurable way."
