'Most dangerous' roads revealed

[Standard Dave]

Britain's most dangerous road is a section of highway linking Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales, a survey says.

The 15-mile stretch of the A682 has had almost 100 deaths or serious injuries in the last decade.

The report was compiled by the Road Safety Foundation for the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP).

Head researcher Dr Joanne Hill said a further 16 road sections were adjudged to present a persistent "medium to high risk" to road users.

The section of the A682, between junction 13 of the M65 and Long Preston, was the only road in the highest risk category.

The survey found that the second worst road was the A54 Congleton to Buxton in Derbyshire, with the third worst being the A683 from junction 34 of the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria.

Dr Hill said: "The good news from the survey is that many of Britain's authorities have brought in countermeasures to tackle the higher risk routes in their areas.

"Most are quick, simple and cheap, involving little more than adopting modern signing, hazard markings and junction layouts."

Dr Hill said that the A682 "fails on every collision type".

These included junction and access road crashes, collisions with rigid roadside objects, overtaking crashes, pedestrian and cyclist collisions and motorcycle crashes.

"The death-toll on this stretch of road is the equivalent of five major rail crashes within 10 years," she said.

"The foundation's consultation with local authorities over the past four years has consistently shown that lack of funding is the principal reason why they do not tackle accident numbers on their roads on the scale that could make a major difference.

"Other local authorities have undoubtedly saved lives - often by the simple application of white paint."

EuroRAP chairman John Dawson said: "The UK is now falling behind those countries it used to lead only a few years ago because its pace in applying the results of research into safe road design lags behind the best.

"Cutting road deaths requires combined action to improve driver behaviour, to improve vehicle crash performance, and to provide safety features on the roads themselves.

"We need five-star drivers in five-star cars on five-star roads."


UK'S MOST DANGEROUS ROADS
A682 from junction M65 in Lancashire to A65 at Long Preston, North Yorkshire
A54 Congleton to Buxton, Derbyshire
A683 from junction 34 on the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
A62 from Diggle to Huddersfield, Yorkshire
A671 from Burnley to A59 at Whalley, Lancashire
A653 Dewsbury to junction 28 of the M62 south of Leeds
A1079 from Market Weighton to Kingston upon Hull
A53 Leek to Buxton
A726 from junction 3 of the M77 to Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland
A46 from Market Rasen to Grimsby

Source The BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6235058.stm

Anyone else tempted to go and have a look to see just why so many people come unstuck on these roads.
The quotes do seem to say that engineering is the answer to all our problems but unless they plan to replace every road with a dual carriageway I feel that this is somewhat flawed logic.

[PeteG]

We should have an ADUK drive, fitting in as many of them as possible. Drive two or three up, over the course of a weekend. See if we can collectively explain it.

[TripleS]

Britain's most dangerous road is a section of highway linking Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales, a survey says.

The 15-mile stretch of the A682 has had almost 100 deaths or serious injuries in the last decade.

The report was compiled by the Road Safety Foundation for the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP).

Head researcher Dr Joanne Hill said a further 16 road sections were adjudged to present a persistent "medium to high risk" to road users.

The section of the A682, between junction 13 of the M65 and Long Preston, was the only road in the highest risk category.

The survey found that the second worst road was the A54 Congleton to Buxton in Derbyshire, with the third worst being the A683 from junction 34 of the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria.

Dr Hill said: "The good news from the survey is that many of Britain's authorities have brought in countermeasures to tackle the higher risk routes in their areas.

"Most are quick, simple and cheap, involving little more than adopting modern signing, hazard markings and junction layouts."

Dr Hill said that the A682 "fails on every collision type".

These included junction and access road crashes, collisions with rigid roadside objects, overtaking crashes, pedestrian and cyclist collisions and motorcycle crashes.

"The death-toll on this stretch of road is the equivalent of five major rail crashes within 10 years," she said.

"The foundation's consultation with local authorities over the past four years has consistently shown that lack of funding is the principal reason why they do not tackle accident numbers on their roads on the scale that could make a major difference.

"Other local authorities have undoubtedly saved lives - often by the simple application of white paint."

EuroRAP chairman John Dawson said: "The UK is now falling behind those countries it used to lead only a few years ago because its pace in applying the results of research into safe road design lags behind the best.

"Cutting road deaths requires combined action to improve driver behaviour, to improve vehicle crash performance, and to provide safety features on the roads themselves.

"We need five-star drivers in five-star cars on five-star roads."


UK'S MOST DANGEROUS ROADS
A682 from junction M65 in Lancashire to A65 at Long Preston, North Yorkshire
A54 Congleton to Buxton, Derbyshire
A683 from junction 34 on the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
A62 from Diggle to Huddersfield, Yorkshire
A671 from Burnley to A59 at Whalley, Lancashire
A653 Dewsbury to junction 28 of the M62 south of Leeds
A1079 from Market Weighton to Kingston upon Hull
A53 Leek to Buxton
A726 from junction 3 of the M77 to Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland
A46 from Market Rasen to Grimsby

Source The BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6235058.stm

Anyone else tempted to go and have a look to see just why so many people come unstuck on these roads.
The quotes do seem to say that engineering is the answer to all our problems but unless they plan to replace every road with a dual carriageway I feel that this is somewhat flawed logic.

Aye, I'll have a look with you if you like, Dave.

No doubt a bit of engineering work would be justified in the worst cases, but in general we'd be better off by concentrating on helping drivers to cope better - and yes, I know it's been said before!

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[PeteG]

Without knowing the roads, I can't comment on whether there's hidden dips, adverse cambers, etc - equally, without knowing the reasons behind each fatac, you can't know what the problem is.
Could it have been a minibus on a narrow bend, or a car overtaking on a blind crest? As said before ,the road itself is safe, it's how drivers approach it.

[notaboyracer]

Found this news article about it which I thought was quite funny:

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm? ... e=s1i21002

[7db]

UK'S MOST DANGEROUS ROADS
A682 from junction M65 in Lancashire to A65 at Long Preston, North Yorkshire
A54 Congleton to Buxton, Derbyshire
A683 from junction 34 on the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
A62 from Diggle to Huddersfield, Yorkshire
A671 from Burnley to A59 at Whalley, Lancashire
A653 Dewsbury to junction 28 of the M62 south of Leeds
A1079 from Market Weighton to Kingston upon Hull
A53 Leek to Buxton
A726 from junction 3 of the M77 to Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland
A46 from Market Rasen to Grimsby

Clearly it's the bloody Northerners...

[TripleS]

UK'S MOST DANGEROUS ROADS
A682 from junction M65 in Lancashire to A65 at Long Preston, North Yorkshire
A54 Congleton to Buxton, Derbyshire
A683 from junction 34 on the M6 in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
A62 from Diggle to Huddersfield, Yorkshire
A671 from Burnley to A59 at Whalley, Lancashire
A653 Dewsbury to junction 28 of the M62 south of Leeds
A1079 from Market Weighton to Kingston upon Hull
A53 Leek to Buxton
A726 from junction 3 of the M77 to Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland
A46 from Market Rasen to Grimsby

Clearly it's the bloody Northerners...

Thank you and good afternoon, Mr B.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[notaboyracer]

I've just realised - at least 5 of my favorite roads are included here!

But of those that I know, they all seem to be out of the way and not near any Fire Stations, Ambulance Depots, A&E's or even decent phone reception. I wonder if that has any bearing on the number of deaths?

The ones I know are also all country roads that are badly affected by adverse weather conditions, and have a lot of open straights followed by sharp corners or blind summits, both up and down hills. In short, the kind of road most people on this forum would enjoy, but also the kind of road that would show up bad driving- as any mistakes may well be made at high speed.

There seems to be a worrying trend to try and solve this by slapping 40 and 50 mph limits on many 'fun' roads like these - the A57 snake pass and A515 Buxton to Ashbourne are local and spring to mind - but I can't see it helping; there are straight bits with good visibility where the NSL could be safely exceeded if you were that way inclined, and corners/summits where 30 would be too fast.