Dangerous roads . . . . .

Interesting to find this on the Beeb website this morning, was very surprised to find that the A675 (a chosen route for NW Treasure Hunt earlier this year  8O ) got a mention but not Haslingden Old Road (Blackburn to Haslingden) or the A666 (Darwen to the M61 thru' Bolton). Surely it's drivers that make these roads dangerous rather than the roads themselves.

BBC NEWS | UK | Experts warn over A road safety

Discuss?

Chris

yer the cat and fiddle is now the most dangerous road in the UK. which is believable with the amount of people you see on it trying to go as fast as possible. (cant talk i've done it a few times at silly speeds too but i dont overtake on that road unless i can see well up it and there is only 2 places on the whole road you can do that)

the road itself is perfectly safe. it's the drivers that arn't.

Cat and Fiddle goes without saying unfortunately, suppose we've all turned a good road into a dangerous one with a moment or two of madness over the years  :roll:

Motorways seem to be the most dodgy, compiled with lots of cars and many people just not watching what they are doing, drifting lanes, rubber necking, falling asleep etc etc. Done many motorway miles so far in my life and have seen absolute carnage in every lane. Lorries into cars, bikes under lorries and more.
The sheer weight of traffic on motorways seem to make them the most dangerous place, especially if you have a crash, your first worry should be if someone else is not paying attention and is going to pile into the back of you.

Its just the idiots who make roads dangerous and the motoway is crazy at times full of people who seem to think they own the middle and outside lanes. There is that many people using the motoways who just don't think about what they are doing, its un true.

My pet hates is dufus`s who hog the middle lane :evil:  can`t they see how much of the motorway theyre taking up when doing this??? :evil:  :twisted:

Not sure I agree that motorways are full of idiots. I mean if there were more bad drivers than good, you wouldn't be able to take a motorway journey without witnessing a crash which from my experience isn't the case.

I do 300 motorway miles a week and I'd say I see a crash every 2 weeks, which I don't think is bad, if you've ever travelled the A14 to Cambridge at rush hour.

Before I moved down here I was doing 800 miles a month for around 6 months on a trip from Newcastle to Northampton every couple of weeks, and I never saw a major accident once, a couple of taps in traffic but nothing more.

I reckon motorways are way safer than A and B roads, most motorways are built with heavy traffic in mind, and they're constantly being improved. There's a hard shoulder, lots of room in each lane, and the surface is better.

I agree that hogging the wrong lane is inconsiderate, but I don't think it's all that dangerous

FACT: There are now more cars on UK roads than ever before in History

FACT: There are now fewer deaths on the roads than 20 yrs ago

The reasons for this are
1. cars are built better with safety as a priority
2. everyone now has to wear a seat belt.
3. there is that much traffic on the roads at peak time you can go fast enough to either kill someone or yourself.

it doesn't seem to be that more speed cameras there are the less folk get killed because Durham county has NO speed cameras and there death toll on roads has also fell so we have to conclude its not much to do speed itself that kills folk more driver error at junctions etc and lets not forget that that child stepping out from behind that ice-cream van is added to the death toll on roads and these figures have also at an all time low
and there are now more people living in the UK so work that one out.
can only be that cars are built better to protect pedestrians

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1208

A5OPY said

Durham county has NO speed cameras

Not too sure about that, there aren't many static ones, but lots of 50mph limits on dual carriageways, and an extremely heavy presence of traffic cars & vans with guns in the back.

Cat and Fiddle road is the top because of biker accidents, the place is wick with them. A biggy on bike is often fatal whereas you can walk away from a car accident if you are lucky.

Bad driving is the main problem but speed does make things worse. A car travelling 70mpg rather than say 50mph contains many more times energy than the extra 20mph would suggest. The increase is expediential. Would you rather be hit by a 40 tonne truck doing 10mph or a small car going 70?

Locally they say that the A59 is a 'dangerous road'. The press are always saying the same thing that its a 'killer road' etc

But it's only dangerous when you put drivers on it who don't observe the road conditions or drive incorrectly. Speed on the Salmesbury has claimed a good number of casualties over the past couple of years.

The problem is that even if 'WE' are doing everything correctly, you can never anticipate the other other driver who may be looking into a field & drifting, drunk/ drugged…. or more commonly nowadays - looking at the satnav!!!  :roll:

The good thing about the cabriolet is that it is a relatively slow car (in standard form  :wink: ) so it doesn't encourage me to go hurtling down the road worrying if the brakes will stop me!!!!!

M25. When its not a car park its a dangerous place.
When I was lorry driving I used to see an accident every day on it.

Mostly it was foreign lorry drivers clipping cars

Forgot about the A59, been plenty of crashes on that over the last couple years even though plenty of cameras Whalley to Salmesbury. Usually due to speed or ignoring solid white lines in the middle of the road. Bikers seem to suffer at the Skipton / Gisburn end of it.