Major Scottish road named as UK's most dangerous

A busy Scottish road has tied with the largest motorway in the UK for the title of the country's most dangerous.

Shawhead interchange A8 Bellshill. Picture: Alan Watson.

Freedom of information requests from police forces across the country, revealed there was 227 road incidents on the A8 - which runs from Edinburgh to Greenock via Glasgow stretch - last year, more than four week.

The A8 tied with the longest motorway in the UK, the M6, as the country’s worst, with more accidents taking place on them than any other roads.

Car leasing specialist, UK Carline, revealed that the M6, which stretches 232 miles from Leicestershire to the Scottish borders and is at the centre of the UK motorway network, and the 280m long A8 in Scotland are the most dangerous.

Following the M6 and A8, the A30 in Devon (213 crashes), A35 in Dorset (173 crashes), and the A46 in Warwickshire (123 crashes) saw the most incidents, making them the worst five roads in the UK.

Some areas reported a particularly high proportion of accidents on a particular road. One in three of all major road accidents which occurred in Northampton happened on the M1 (31 per cent) which connects London to Leeds, while following closely behind is the A35 in Dorset, which accounted for over a quarter of the county’s road accidents (28 per cent).

Overall, Scotland was revealed as the area that recorded the highest number of car incidents, clocking up a staggering 6253. Manchester appeared second, with 1775 crashes in one year.

Jonathan Nolan, general manager at UK Carline said: “Our research certainly produced some eye-opening statistics regarding the safety of UK roads. Although the government and councils regularly enforce new driving laws and take steps to help people drive safely, we must take more care whilst driving and ensure our vehicles have adequate safety features.

“We hope our research has brought to light the dangers of driving on these particular roads and encourage people to be more aware of their surroundings to protect their safety.”

The worst 10 roads can be found here:

Location

Road

Number of accidents

Cheshire

Warwickshire

M6

227

Scotland

A8(M)

227

Devon

A30

213

Dorset

A35

173

Warwickshire

A46

123

Staffordshire

A34

112

Greater Manchester

Manchester Road

100

West Mercia

A49

106

Cheshire

A49

92

Northampton

M1

58