Accident hotspots revealed for Dacorum

Dacorum's roads had over 1,000 accidents causing injury or death between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2018.

New Government figures have revealed that there have been 1,138 road accidents causing casualties in Dacorum over the five year period - a rate of 74 accidents per 10,000 residents.

In Dacorum there were seven roads that had over 50 accidents causing casualties between 2014 and 2018:

- The A4251 passes through Tring, Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, had 110 accidents

- The A41 passes through Kings Langley and Hemel Hempstead, had 97 accidents

- There were 66 accidents on the M1

- The A414, which runs near Hemel Hempstead, had 60 accidents

- The A4146, which runs near Hemel Hempstead, had 57 accidents

- The A4147, which runs through Hemel Hempstead, had 57 accidents

- The B487, which runs through Hemel Hempstead, had 55 accidents

On the M1 through Hertfordshire, there were 529 accidents causing injury or death between 2014 and 2018, and on the M25 through the county there were 611 accidents causing injury or death over the same time period.

The number of accidents in Britain causing injury or death fell by 16 per cent.

On Britain’s biggest roads (A-roads and motorways) throughout this five-year period, there was an average of 10.4 accidents causing injury or death per mile.

Figures show an average of 336 accidents causing death or injury happen every day on roads across Britain and there are an average of 439 casualties per day.

The data also show serious crashes are more likely to happen on a Friday between 5pm and 6pm with drivers more likely to be male, aged between 26 and 35.

While the number of accidents causing death or injury has fallen by a sixth in the past five years, road safety charity Brake has said more should be done to catch and punish dangerous drivers.

A spokesperson for road safety charity Brake said there were steps drivers could take to prevent accidents, such as slowing down, not using mobile phones when driving and getting their eyesight tested regularly.

But the spokesperson also said there needs to be "greater investment in road traffic enforcement so that people who do drive dangerously and break the law, endangering themselves and all other road users, are caught and punished."

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it is making vital improvements to some of the country’s most dangerous stretches of road.

The DfT said allocation of crime-fighting resources is a matter for chief constables, in conjunction with police and crime commissioners.

The department said that busier roads will have a higher number of accidents but that “vital improvements” were being made to the road networks.

A spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving road safety across the country, and the Safer Roads Fund will provide vital improvements to the 50 most dangerous stretches of road in England.

“In addition, we launched a Road Safety Action Plan last year which set out more than 70 measures to reduce the number of people killed and injured on our roads.”