Britain is packed full of beautiful scenery, with plenty of exciting hair-raising roads that can turn any humdrum drive into an attractive adventure. However, Britain contains many extremely dangerous roads, with some having a high number of accidents on a yearly basis.
At Carole Nash, we obtained the latest data and statistics through a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Transport – to analyse over 2,000 British motorways and A-roads, from the most dangerous, to the roads that have claimed the most lives…
The Most Dangerous A-Roads
The data consisted of all reported road incidents on UK roads, between the year 2007 and the year 2016.
The analysis revealed that the longest numbered road in the UK, the A1, is the deadliest A-road in the country. The severity of accidents on this road were far greater than any other, with 172 people losing their lives over the past decade.
It was also revealed that the A38, otherwise known as the Devon Expressway, is home to the most vehicle accidents, along with the greatest number of vehicles involved in crashes. With 8,698 reported accidents and 13,153 vehicles involved, higher than any other A-road.
Below is the full table of stats for the most accidents per A-road, between 2007-2016:
| A-road | Number of accidents | Number of vehicles involved | Number of deaths |
| A38 | 8698 | 13153 | 137 |
| A6 | 8338 | 11938 | 152 |
| A4 | 7953 | 9882 | 80 |
| A1 | 7848 | 10821 | 172 |
| A40 | 6887 | 9214 | 142 |
The Most Dangerous Motorways
We also took a look at the statistics for the most dangerous motorways in Britain, again looking at the amount of accidents and vehicles involved.
The stats showed that the M25, otherwise known as the London Orbital Motorway, is the most accident-prone. With 7,673 individual accidents taking place, however the M1 had the highest number of vehicles involved in crashes.
It was the M6, which was revealed as the most deadly motorway in Britain – claiming more lives than any other. The motorway, which covers large parts of the Midlands and North West of England, had fewer reported accidents than both M25 and the M1. But despite this, 160 people lost their lives on it over the last decade.
Below is the full table of stats for the most accidents per motorway, between 2007-2016:
| Motorway | Number of accidents | Number of vehicles involved | Number of deaths |
| M25 | 7673 | 13046 | 80 |
| M1 | 7617 | 13121 | 154 |
| M6 | 7342 | 12491 | 160 |
| M4 | 5698 | 10583 | 123 |
| M5 | 3185 | 5765 | 91 |
Not All Negative
Even though these findings paint a grim picture of Britain’s roads, it’s not all entirely negative. The data also revealed that the number of reported accidents has actually decreased year-on-year.
According to the statistics, there was:
- 25% fewer crashes registered on major roads in 2016 than 2007.
- 35% of the roads analysed had no fatalities from crashes, including 8 out of the 51 motorways.
The M49, which covers the Bristol and Gloucestershire area, was found to be the safest motorway in Britain, with just 11 reported accidents in 10 years, and no fatalities.
Below is the full table of stats showing the least accidents per motorway between 2007-2016:
| Motorway | Number of accidents | Number of vehicles involved | Number of deaths |
| M49 | 11 | 9 | 0 |
| M10 | 14 | 22 | 0 |
| M45 | 16 | 15 | 1 |
| M898 | 17 | 21 | 0 |
| M181 | 28 | 36 | 0 |
Our Head of Marketing, Rebecca Donohue, said:
“Safety is naturally paramount to every road user, so we hope this data will help provide our customers with as much information as possible to keep them safe. It is very positive though to note that the number of accidents is steadily decreasing year-on-year, which is testament to road users and those who enforce the safety precautions on our highways.”
