Stretch of road named as most dangerous in Yorkshire

The A61 between junction 44 of the M1 and Wakefield was named in a report published today as the road with the highest number of serious and fatal crashes as a proportion of journeys travelled in the county.

The Road Safety Foundation found there had been an average of 24 incidents a year on the 10.3km stretch between 2010
and 2012 – making it the sixth most hazardous road in the
country. More than half – 57 per cent – involved cyclists or pedestrians.

The figures were revealed in the Road Safety Foundation’s report How Safe are You on Britain’s Roads?, launched at a House of Lords briefing today.

It said 64 people were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads every day, with six out of 10 fatal crashes occurring on rural routes.

Annual serious injury costs nationally amount to £0.3bn in relation to motorways, £0.6bn for national trunk roads and £2bn for local authority ‘A’ roads.

The foundation said casualty statistics could be dramatically reduced if local councils carried out low cost safety improvements at the same time as routine maintenance.

James Bradford, the foundation’s engineering manager, said: “Authorities commonly report that many of the most effective improvements have not, surprisingly, been carried out specifically to improve road safety. Often the pressing need to carry out very basic maintenance has initiated action and the additional safety enhancements were a later addition. Scheduling in this way is extraordinarily cost effective.”

However, the figures showed that there had been only a minimal improvement in safety levels on the A61 since the period 2007-09.

The “most improved” road in the Yorkshire region is the A1079 between York and Market Weighton, which has seen major investment in a range of safety measures including junction improvements and speed cameras.