Dangerous road hotline launched

Brake wants the public's help in identifying dangerous roads

Road safety campaigners have launched a hotline for people to report dangerous roads in their area.

Lobby group Brake says that too often accidents must occur before action is taken to make a road safer.

It wants to use the telephone calls to draw up a list of roads it says need safety measures such as speed cameras.

But the government has been under pressure to ensure speed cameras are only used where they are needed - in places where there have been accidents.

Brake wants to turn that around - and use the calls to its hotline to draw up a list of roads - before there are deaths and injuries.

Teenage deaths

The campaign group says road accidents are the biggest killer of children aged 12 to 16.

It is calling for more speed cameras, 20 mile an hour speed limits, signs and crossings on roads considered dangerous.

Earlier this month, an AA Motoring Trust report pinpointed the most dangerous roads in Britain.

The trust said its annual analysis of the road accident records revealed the British risk rate to be one of the lowest in Europe with even some of the recognised high-risk stretches improving over time.

However, it said the worst few roads still produced up to 10 times as many fatal or serious accidents as the safest.