Skip to main content

Interactive map reveals the UK’s riskiest roads

The A254 between the junction with A28 in Margate and the junction with the A255 near Ramsgate is the UK’s riskiest road, according to an interactive Dangerous Road Map. There were 26 fatal and serious crashes per billion vehicle kilometres on this road, say motor insurer Ageas and the Road Safety Foundation (RSF). Both organisations are now calling on an immediate investment from the UK government of £75 million, and the same amount annually for five years thereafter to improve the country’s riskiest
November 20, 2018 Read time: 3 mins

The A254 between the junction with A28 in Margate and the junction with the A255 near Ramsgate is the UK’s riskiest road, according to an interactive Dangerous Road Map.

There were 26 fatal and serious crashes per billion vehicle kilometres on this road, say motor insurer Ageas and the Road Safety Foundation (RSF).

Both organisations are now calling on an immediate investment from the UK government of £75 million, and the same amount annually for five years thereafter to improve the country’s riskiest roads.

It is estimated that this investment could prevent as many as 5,600 deaths or serious injuries over the next two decades with a prevention value of around £2 billion.

RSF says 654 lives out of 1,793 would not have been lost in 2017 if the UK was on target to halve road deaths by 2020. Also, 2,549 road death could have been prevented between 2010 and 2017 if the country was on track.  

A %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external report false https://www.ageas.co.uk/globalassets/assets/newsroom/eurorapgb2018_gettingbackontrack.pdf false false%> by Ageas says the Dangerous Road Map has identified 40 ‘persistently higher risk’ roads which must be addressed by the UK’s Safer Roads Fund. These areas have an average of at least one fatal or serious crash mile in a three-year survey period between 2014-16.  

Ageas and RSF believe a single investment of £75m on these roads would prevent an estimated 1,110 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.

Getting Back on Track also shows in 2017.

•    The societal cost of road traffic crashes was £35bn.
•    An average of 73 people were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads every day.
•    Motorcycle fatalities increased by 9% from 319 in 2016 to 349.
•    Six out of ten fatal casualties occurred on rural roads.
•    Nearly 6% of fatal casualties occurred on motorways.

The Safer Roads Fund was part of an investment package announced in 2016 by the Department of Transport to upgrade 50 of the UK’s most dangerous local A-road sections.

Suzy Charman, executive director of the RSF, says progress to reduce the rate of death and serious injury on UK roads has flatlined since 2010.

“The Safer Roads Fund has allowed the road safety community to demonstrate that investing in road safety engineering treatments really does have life-saving potential, and also stacks up as an investment when compared to other transport initiatives,” she adds.

Charman believes the continuation of the fund would be a critical way of achieving zero road deaths by 2050.

Andy Watson, CEO of Ageas, believes a reduction in crashes will benefit the economy.  

“Fewer crashes mean fewer insurance claims – and saving an annual of £23.2m that we can pass onto our policy holders,” Watson adds.

Other findings show the risk is lowest in the West Midlands and the most improved road is the A161 in Yorkshire with fatal and serious crashes decreasing from 13 (in 2011-13) to one (in 2014-16).

Related Content

  • Public transit is weapon in US congestion war
    December 3, 2018
    Public transit is a huge component of US transportation, insists Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Strategic Partnerships – and infrastructure upgrades have the potential to create thousands of jobs When it comes to public transportation, the US lags far behind other countries. Governments in Europe, Asia and Canada invest heavily in public transportation because it is viewed as an essential public good. The US government, however, views public transit a little differently and funding has been inadequate for d
  • US traffic deaths at 16-year high
    May 18, 2022
    'Grim milestone confirms we are moving backwards when it comes to safety,' says GHSA
  • Groups seek electronic collision alert devices on big trucks
    February 20, 2015
    The US Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the Center for Auto Safety and Road Safe America have filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requesting that the agency initiate rulemaking to require forward collision avoidance and mitigation braking (F-CAM) systems on all new large trucks and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or more. F-CAM technology uses radar and sensors to first alert the driver and then t
  • Brake, IAM concerned at government figures on UK drink-drive habit
    August 7, 2015
    Brake, the road safety charity, and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), have responded to the latest government figures which they say show Britain is still failing to adequately tackle its drink drive problem. A final estimate shows 240 people were killed by drivers over the legal drink drive limit in 2013, while provisional estimates suggest at least that number were killed in 2014. However, the number of people seriously injured in drink drive crashes did fall by eight per cent to 1,100 from 20