Where are Britain’s most dangerous roads?

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For the first time since they were first built, many of Britain’s busiest stretches of tarmac were left deserted in March.

The national lockdown saw people retreat to their homes and take refuge indoors, avoiding travel wherever possible in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Now that restrictions have been lifted (albeit with some exceptions and tighter rules in certain regions, including Manchester), traffic has steadily returned to the roads.

Just before lockdown, car-buying platform Carwow submitted a Freedom of Information Request to find out which roads in the UK posed the most danger to drivers in 2020.

Quaid Lagan / Unsplash

The full results were as follows:

  1. Dorset (A35, A354, A3049) – 1,837 collisions
  2. Nottinghamshire (Mansfield Road, A60, A1) – 1,771 collisions
  3. Cumbria (A595, M6, A590) – 633 collisions
  4. Lincolnshire (A52, A16, A15) – 625 collisions
  5. Cheshire (M6, M58, A49) – 434 collisions
  6. Avon & Somerset (A4174; M5, J19-20; M5, J20-19) – 369 collisions
  7. Gloucestershire (A40, A38, A417) – 367 collisions
  8. Staffordshire (A500, A38 Clay Mills, A38 Fradley Lane) – 357 collisions
  9. Warwickshire (A46, A452, A444) – 335 collisions
  10. Greater London (Haringey, High Road; Ealing, Western Avenue; Enfield, Great Cambridge Road) – 298 collisions
  11. North Wales (A548, A55, A5) – 289 collisions
  12. City of London (Bishopsgate, Victoria Embankment, Lower/Upper Thames Street, London Wall/Wormwood Street – 219 collisions
  13. Cleveland (A19, A66, A174) – 207 collisions
  14. Hertfordshire (M1, A1, M25, Hertsmere Borough) – 157 collisions
  15. Bedfordshire (A505, M1, Luton, A5141) – 150 collisions

The most dangerous roads closest to home were the M6, M58 and A49 – which recorded a total of 434 collisions in 2019.

The worst of the worst, however, was the A35 – which is way down south in the region of Dorset.

Dan Burton / Unsplash

At the end of last year, data showed that the most dangerous road in Greater Manchester has been the A58 (which runs north-east from Prescot through Bolton, Bury, Heywood and Rochdale).

The 282 mile-long A6 was also considered among the more hazardous high-speed lanes, as well as the A56 which travels through inner city Manchester.

For more information on staying safe on local roads, visit the DriveSafe page on the Transport for Greater Manchester website.