A61 near Wakefield named most dangerous road in Yorkshire

The A61 between junction 44 of the M1 and Wakefield was named in a report published today as the road with the highest number of serious and fatal crashes as a proportion of journeys travelled in the county.

The Road Safety Foundation found there had been an average of 24 incidents a year on the 10.3km stretch between 2010 and 2012 - making it the sixth most hazardous road in the country.

More than half (57 per cent) involved cyclists or 
pedestrians.

The figures were revealed in the Road Safety Foundation’s report How Safe are You on Britain’s Roads?, launched at a briefing at the House of Lords yesterday.

It said 64 people were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads every day, with six out of 10 fatal crashes occurring on rural routes.

Annual serious injury costs nationally amount to £0.3bn in relation to motorways, £0.6bn for national trunk roads and £2bn for local authority ‘A’ roads.