Most dangerous roads in Britain revealed

The M6, and the A8(M) in Scotland, are the most accident-prone roads in Britain, according to the results of a new survey.

Both the longest and the shortest motorways in the UK saw more crashes take place on them during 2017 than any other highways in the country – with 227 serious incidents taking place on each one.

Road safety chiefs will certainly be concerned about the figure for the A8(M).

The Glasgow highway is just a fifth of a mile in length, covering a fraction of the distance of the M6, which runs from the midlands through the north-west of England and covers a total of 232 miles.

Following the two well-travelled routes were the A30 in Devon with 213 accidents and the A35 in neighbouring Dorset (173 incidents).

Jonathan Nolan, general manager at car leasing specialist UK Carline  submitted Freedom of Information requests to police forces to compile the figures.

He said: “Our research certainly produced some eye-opening statistics regarding the safety of UK roads. Although the government and councils regularly enforce new driving laws and take steps to help people drive safely, we must take more care whilst driving and ensure our vehicles have adequate safety features.

“We hope our research has brought to light the dangers of driving on these particular roads and encourage people to be more aware of their surroundings to protect their safety.”

The survey split the country into regions to produce further figures about road safety.

Scotland was the ‘area’ with the greatest total number of accidents in 2017 – 6,253. It was followed by Greater Manchester (1,775) and Devon (1,707).

At the bottom of the list came Norfolk, with the area experiencing just 669 accidents over the 12-month spell.

The data on the number of serious accidents in 2017 came from FoI requests submitted to 39 UK police forces, of which 27 responded.