Danger warning over rural roads

BRITAIN'S 10 RISKIEST ROADS 1. A537 Macclesfield to Buxton 2. A534 Welsh boundary to Nantwich 3. A682 M65 J13 to A65 Long Preston 4. A54 Congleton to Buxton 5. A631 Gainsborough to A1103 6. A683 A6 to Kirkby Lonsdale 7. A61 Barnsley to Wakefield 8. A1101 Outwell (A1122) to Long Sutton (A17) 9. A44 Leominster to Worcester 10. A53 Leek to Buxton

Badly designed rural roads are continuing to pose a high risk to motorists, the Automobile Association (AA) is warning.

The AA Motoring Trust has published its second league table of the most dangerous roads in Britain, with the worst three roads all in north-west England.

The A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton is identified as the worst - followed by the A534 between the Welsh boundary and Nantwich, and the A682 from junction 13 on the M65 to A65 at Long Preston.

But the AA does say improvements introduced on rural roads following similar research last year has saved at least 20 lives - and has also published a list of Britain's most improved thoroughfares.

For the study, 830 of Britain's major roads were rated according to the number of accidents occuring on them between 1999 and 2001.

It was the organisation's second such report - a study looking at accidents between 1997 and 1999 was published last year.

Thirteen roads have been made safer, with the number of accidents on two of them falling by 61%, the AA says.

But each of the worst roads it identifies saw dozens of fatal or serious accidents over a two-year period.

Collisions

Between 1999 and 2001, there were 35 major crashes on eight miles of the A537 through the Peak District to Buxton - many of them head-on collisions.

Britain's most improved roads 1. A134 Thetford - A10 2. M73 J1-J3 3. A682 A56 - A646 Burnley 4. A45 Coventry Ring Road - M42 J6 5. A6 Leicester - Derby 6. A299 Faversham-A253 Monkton 7. A523 Macclesfield - Hazel Grove 8. A75 Gretna Green - Dumfries 9. A243 A3 Hook - M25 10. A638 Adwick Le Street - Crofton

The AA says that like most of the worst roads, it has lots of bends, roadside obstacles and poorly designed junctions - as well as drivers travelling too fast.

The road is one of the highest in the UK, at about 450 metres, and is often affected by bad weather not experienced on nearby lower roads.

In an attempt to improve safety, police introduced a text message system ealier this year to send road condition information quickly to roadside boards on the A537.

The AA says that on the 13 most improved roads, the number of deaths and serious injuries has almost halved from 200 per year.

This follows changes made by engineers, such as improvements to junction layouts, signing and road markings, and the addition of safety barriers and speed cameras.

The trust is calling for a national effort led by government and local authorities to apply similar measures to all 370 British roads it identifies as posing a higher than average risk to people using them.

John Dawson, director of the AA Motoring Trust, said: "It's easy to forget the true death toll on the roads because the accidents are scattered and usually involve only one or two people.

"Yet there are many people alive today thanks to the relatively inexpensive changes made on the roads we have identified.

"It's right that billions of pounds are being spent on railway safety, which works out at around £10 million for every life saved. But we can save hundreds more people every year on the roads for just a fraction of that, and deliver massive savings to the NHS into the bargain."

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