Yorkshire tops league of shame for road danger

The most recent risk ratings for Britain claim Yorkshire has the greatest proportion of high risk roads – joint only with Scotland – and the highest proportion of fatal and serious crashes at junctions in the country.

In the last two recorded years, 2,400 road users have been involved in serious and fatal collisions on the region's roads.

The findings follow a new report released by the Road Safety Marking's Association which studied 10 of the deadliest highways in Britain – four of which were in Yorkshire – and found them to be in a "dreadful state".

Now campaigners are demanding urgent action to improve our roads before more lives are lost.

George Lee, national director of the Road Safety Markings Association, said: "This is devastating for the whole region.

"When you look at the performance levels of the roads, it is really quite frightening.

"We were surprised at how startlingly bad the quality of markings were on the roads we looked at."

Mr Lee added: "The quality in Britain is declining as a whole but local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber need to take a very serious look at the maintenance of their roads.

"Road safety engineering programmes have too often been viewed as discretionary by many authorities and adoption can therefore be hit and miss.

"This report flags up some serious concerns for the overall conditions of our road network now, and central government's support is vital in hitting home the message that deadly road markings are costing lives."

According to the most recent road safety figures for the four Yorkshire roads looked at in the study, there were 49 serious and fatal collisions between 2006 and 2008.

The Road Safety Marking Association research took place in September this year and has raised fears that little progress has been made.

Experts claim there is a North South divide in road safety and the problem is magnified in Yorkshire due to its high number of fast single carriageway roads.

North Yorkshire was not mentioned in the recent study, but in 2004 the A59 between Skipton and Harrogate was named the most dangerous road in Britain with 43 fatal or serious accidents in three years.

Safety on the road has since improved dramatically but it is still included in the persistently high risk register published by the Road Safety Foundation, another safety body.

Earlier this week, Stephen Summers, a 55-year-old from Keighley was killed on the A59 after his black Kawasaki motorcycle collided with a silver Ford Mondeo at Broughton, near Skipton.

Currently the most dangerous road in Yorkshire is the A684 which runs from Kendal over the Yorkshire Dales where there were 35 fatal or serious crashes over the last two recorded years.

Nearly half the crashes involved a motorcyclist.

Dr Steve Lawson, technical director of the Road Safety Foundation, said: "Local authorities know where the issues are and what can be done to solve them, they have demonstrated this already.

"The work that was done on the A59 needs to be replicated elsewhere to bring these roads up to scratch.

"This is definitely something we are pushing for.

"We are very hopeful that all the cuts that have been made to local authority budgets will not stop some of the good work that has already been going on."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: "We are constantly reviewing road safety measures to ensure everything possible is done to make our highways safe."

Deadly routes still badly marked

The four Yorkshire roads criticised in the Road Safety Markings Association study are:

The A61 Barnsley to Wakefield.

The A642 from the M62 junction 30 (Wakefield) to the A61 (Wakefield).

The A645 Knottingley to the A1041 (Snaith).

The A6135 Ecclesfield to the M1 junction 36 (Hoyland).

There have been 49 fatal or serious accidents on the roads looked at in the study in the past two recorded years:

16 on the A61.

10 on the A642.

14 on the A645.

Nine on the A6135.

The Road Safety Marking Association said the poorest road markings its researchers found in the survey were a five-mile section of the A6135 north of Sheffield – with three-quarters of markings non-existent or highly worn.

When you look at the performance levels of the roads, it is really quite frightening.