These are the most dangerous roads in Wakefield, according to the latest accident data

Government data on crashes that cause injury or death show Yorkshire and the Humber is the third worst region in the country with more than 60,000 crashes causing accidents taking place between 2014 and 2018.

While the number of accidents causing death or injury has fallen by a sixth in the past five years, road safety charity Brake has said more should be done to catch and punish dangerous drivers.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it is making vital improvements to some of the country’s most dangerous stretches of road.

In Wakefield the most dangerous roads are the A61 with 146 accidents, the A645 with 142, and the A642 with 125.

Serious crashes are more likely to happen on a Friday and in the hour between 5pm and 6pm.

Drivers are more likely to be male and be aged between 26 and 35.

A spokesperson for road safety charity Brake said there were steps drivers could take to prevent accidents, such as slowing down, not using mobile phones when driving and getting their eyesight tested regularly.

But the spokesperson also said there needs to be “greater investment in road traffic enforcement so that people who do drive dangerously and break the law, endangering themselves and all other road users, are caught and punished”.

The DfT said allocation of crime-fighting resources is a matter for chief constables, in conjunction with police and crime commissioners.

The department said that busier roads will have a higher number of accidents but that “vital improvements” were being made to the road networks.

A spokesman for the department said: “We are committed to improving road safety across the country, and the Safer Roads Fund will provide vital improvements to the 50 most dangerous stretches of road in England.

“In addition, we launched a Road Safety Action Plan last year which set out more than 70 measures to reduce the number of people killed and injured on our roads.”

A Transport Scotland spokesperson added: “We remain committed to working with our road safety partners to deliver a coordinated approach to road safety to secure the ultimate vision established in Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 and beyond, where no one is killed on our roads.

“Road deaths are not an inevitability.”

The district’s most dangerous road according to the figures is the A61, which connects Derby and Thirsk via Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield and Leeds.

It includes Barnsley Road and passes by the Hepworth and Wakefield Kirkgate railway station.

It is followed by the A645, which stretches from Crofton to Goole, via Ferrybridge.

In third place on according to the figures is the A642, which stretches from Huddersfield to Leeds via Wakefield.

It passes via Westgate in the city centre and to the east side of Pinderfields Hospital, and past Stanley to Woodlesford.