Yesinsurance Calls for Road Safety Measures

by Gill Montia

Story link: Yesinsurance Calls for Road Safety Measures

yesinsurance.co.uk, the online insurer, is calling for action to reduce the number of accidents occurring on Britain’s most dangerous roads. Measures such as the installation of crash barriers, improvements in traffic signing and white-lining, and the realignment of junctions are being recommended by the insurer to reduce fatalities and injuries on high-risk stretches of road.

According to the European Road Assessment Programme, the UK’s three most dangerous roads are the A682 in Yorkshire, the A54 in Derbyshire, and the A84 in Scotland. The programme gives an accurate assessment of safety because it is not simply based on the number of accidents occurring but takes into account the amount of traffic travelling on each road.
Overall, it is single carriageway roads in rural and sometimes hilly areas that are amongst the most dangerous sections of road in the UK. Risk increases if the road forms part of a route to an area of natural beauty or other attractions. Motorways remain the safest roads in the UK.

Figures from 2004, which are the latest available puts the UK third in the list of countries surveyed. Road deaths stood at 5.5 per 100,000 of population. Although the figure is alarmingly high, it compares with rates of 5.3 in Sweden and 4.9 in the Netherlands.