Two roads are among highest risk in the nation
A515 AND A5132 HIGHLIGHTED IN REPORT OVER NUMEROUS ACCIDENTS
A REPORT has revealed two of the nation’s most high-risk roads run through East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire.
The A515, which runs through Sudbury, Draycott in the Clay and Yoxall, and the A5132, which spans Hilton and Etwall and runs via Egginton and Willington to Swarkestone, were identified in a study as some of the most high-risk roads in the country.
The Road Safety Foundation online map also says the A610 from the A6 to Ripley is a high-risk road.
Government data recorded from 2017 to 2019 details crashes which caused either death or serious injury on the A515.
The road has had 35 crashes in just two years, with the route being noted as persistently high risk as a result.
The A610 and A5132 saw four crashes in the same period, with the A5132 receiving the highest danger rating.
The Road Safety Foundation, which completed the study with insurance company Ageas, tracks the nation’s road safety performance, year on year, across thousands of individual road sections.
It said: “This map lets you understand the risk ratings of the individual sections of main roads that matter to you, whether they be the roads near your home, your loved ones or on your commute.
“In 2019, some £1.7 billion was diverted from elsewhere in the health budget; this sum is the equivalent of around 11,000 double crewed ambulances, 61,000 junior nurses or 2,400 level-3 intensive care beds.
“At a time where our health service is on Covid-related catch-up, we can take actions that are both humanitarian and make sound economic sense, such as protecting the NHS through road casualty reduction.
“Ageas Insurance and the Road Safety Foundation are calling for the government to invest £1.4 billion on roads with the highest potential returns and save thousands of lives.”
The study ranks every major road in the UK as one of five colour ratings, from low to high risk.
In a statement, Derbyshire County Council said that work was being done to make the roads safer.
A spokesperson said: “The routes highlighted in this study are all busy routes across our county that inevitably have a number of incidents as a consequence of the large traffic volumes using them on a regular basis.
“The authority monitors casualty patterns along all its road networks and where injury collision clusters are identified at a particular location with an identified problem, and where remedial actions or engineering measures could help, these are put forward for funding from our annual capital funded road safety budgetary allocations.
“The competition for these funds is high and we have to prioritise where it is spent.
“The general road safety along routes and the education of drivers using them can also be addressed through targeted campaigns and publicity if a particular problem is generally identified along an entire route.
“Derbyshire Constabulary also carries out enforcement in the areas where the excessive speed of traffic is found to be a problem and contributory to any collisions identified.
“We are spending £120m on improving roads in Derbyshire from 2020 to 2023, and part of this money will be spent on safetwy improvements.
“The Highways Capital Programme for 2022/2023 is presently being finalised, and proposals for safety improvements at the A515 in Buxton, the A610 in Ripley and the A5132 in Etwall are currently being developed for inclusion on the programme, which will be presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 13 January 2022 for consideration.’’