A285 named as one of Britain’s most dangerous road again - but council says improvement works are yet to be considered

A ‘landmark report’ by the Road Safety Foundation has shown that the A285, between Halnaker and Petworth, was judged to have been one of the most dangerous roads for six consecutive years, from 2013 to 2018. However, since the latest figures were collated two years ago, a £2.4million safety improvement scheme was carried out along about 12km of the route in 2018/19.

A West Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “The A285 has been a priority for the county council for some time.

“This complemented previous improvement works and involved constructing sections of hard strip safety edge at the side of the road, to help in cases of driver error, and introduced a ribbed edge line (similar to the ones found on motorways and dual carriageways). 

“The collision data used in the report is from before this improvement scheme was begun. It is likely the A285 will remain in the persistently high risk table for some time while the EuroRAP methodology ‘catches up’ with the post-construction collision data.

“We would also like to highlight that initiatives such as the Road Safety Fund are crucial in enabling local road authorities to make significant, long-lasting road safety investments, especially on those roads that are identified as having a persistently high risk.

“The risk mapping undertaken by the Road Safety Foundation is fundamental in this regard and we look forward to continuing to work with them as road safety partners in the future.”

The value to society of preventing all reported injury crashes on this stretch between 2013 and 2018, including the cost to the NHS, long-term care, fire, police, ambulance, and the courts, would have been around £24m, according to the Road Safety Foundation.

The report from the foundation and Ageas Insurance; Looking Back – Moving Forward shows that the 19km stretch has seen 29 serious and fatal crashes between 2013-2015 and 2016-2018; nearly two-thirds of these crashes between 2016 and 2018 involved motorcyclists.

Suzy Charman, executive director of the Road Safety Foundation said: “This 20th annual report shows that in 2018 less than 1 per cent of roads were significantly improved between 2013-2015 and 2016-2018.

“The A285 has one 19km stretch of road that continues to be the location of a number of serious and fatal crashes and has been rated by our research as one of Britain’s most persistently higher risk routes.

“This report identifies an investment package of £1.2 billion that would see over 5,000km of roads treated, preventing an estimated 8,000 fatal and serious injuries over 20 years, with great returns – every £1 invested should benefit society by an average of around £3.60.  

“We’ve already demonstrated that infrastructure safety measures can be developed and implemented very quickly, providing jobs and saving lives.  

“At a time when we need to boost our economic recovery and protect the NHS what better way of saving our society an estimated £4.4 billion over the next 20 years. Let’s move forward and save lives by improving these roads.”

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