The dangers associated with A roads and what more can be done?

The dangers associated with A roads and what more can be done.

35% of serious injuries on A roads are at junctions. What more can be done?

A recent report has outlined the stark dangers associated with A roads. The EuroRAP report, called ‘How much do road crashes cost where you live?‘ provided information about the lowest and highest risk authorities in the UK based on economic losses related to accidents occurring in their regions.

Single carriageways and accidents

The report said that 67 people were being killed or seriously injured on the roads of Britain every day, stating that 50% of fatal crashes were taking place on rural roads. It said single carriageway ‘A’ roads presented eight times the risks of motorways and three times the risk of their dual carriageway counterparts. 30% of all road-related deaths happened because of vehicles running off the road, with 35% of serious injuries being related to crashes at junctions and 18% of the road network being deemed unacceptably high risk. Some the  UK roads most common for accidents that unfortunately prove fatal.  A poll of over 20,000 AA members reported 40% of all drivers in the UK have had their view obscured at junctions by overgrown foliage or vegetation. So is uncut grass to blame for the rise in Road Traffic Accidents.

Ways to improve safety

A large number of roads have benefitted from improvements on safety, with improvements made having led to a 72% decrease on fatalities and serious injuries between the two monitoring periods, which were 2008-10 and 2011-13. Ways to reduce fatalities and serious injuries may include improving delineation to alert drivers to oncoming road layouts. This can vastly reduce head-on incidents, run-offs and junction crashes occurring.

The most dangerous region

A Road Safety Foundation study found that drivers were more likely to be involved in crashes on single carriageway A-roads than on the motorway and that the East Midlands was the most dangerous part of the country in terms of road accidents. Crashes at junctions were the most likely to lead to serious injuries, whilst run-offs resulted in the most deaths. the most accident prone roads in the UK have unfortunately been A roads.The study used information from accidents on every A-road and motorway in Britain and said over a fifth of crashes resulting in deaths and serious injuries in urban areas involved cyclists or pedestrians. 10% of such accidents were head-on collisions. The Foundation said that safety could be improved and accident rates lowered by converting single carriageway roads into dual carriageways. It is evident that several people are involved in accident on the roads each year and these figures only apply to the ones who have been involved in serious accidents. Minor accidents can also cause injuries and the most common ones are whiplash. we have perviously discussed 5 common causes of UK road traffic accidents .

The safest area

The West Midlands was declared the safest region. The neighbouring East Midlands region includes the most dangerous road in Britain, the A537, which connects Buxton and Macclesfield and was the scene of 44 fatal and serious crashes between 2007-11. Some experts attribute improved accident rates to better car design rather than road engineering and suggest more can be done to improve junction layouts and roadside safety barriers. Whilst the motor accident risk on an A road appears to be higher ,we also have some tips on how to deal with an accident on a motorway. The director of the Foundation, Dr Steve Lawson, said factors not under authority control like hospital treatment and car safety were being “muddled” with factors that they could influence such as the quality of barriers and layouts.

Contact us today

At One Call Accident Management, we offer a range of services for people that have been involved in road traffic accidents, including personal injury claims assistance, accident recovery, replacement vehicles, vehicle repair and more. To find out more about what we can do for you, call 0800 999 4042, send a message to contact@onecallam.co.uk or get in touch via the website.

 

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