KILLER ROADS - TAMING THEM

Cars are safer than they've ever been. Sadly, we can't say the same about the roads we drive them on.

Recently, the biggest study ever undertaken on the safety of Europe's roads has identified the most dangerous major road in Britain as the A889 near Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands.

Following 18 months of work, the AA-led EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) has given safety 'star ratings' to more than 800 major UK roads, and a further 2,000 in three other countries - the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain.



The unique statistics will allow highways authorities and engineers to compare similar roads and identify the hidden killers among them. It is estimated that often simple improvements to those stretches that perform worse than average could save 2,400 people in Britain from death or serious injury each year. This is equivalent to more than a third of the fatal and serious accidents that happen on these roads.



The A889 has an accident rate almost double that of the next most dangerous road, the A537 from Macclesfield in Cheshire to Buxton in Derbyshire, while the third most dangerous road is a short section of the A12 between Romford in Essex and the M25.



Of the 833 roads assessed in the UK, 23 were so bad they achieved no stars in the ratings. 90 only received one-star, 213 two stars, 415 three stars, with 92 gaining the top four star rating. Roads with no stars have accident rates ten times ...