The 10 Most Dangerous Sections of Secondary Roads

For the thirteenth consecutive year, the EuroRAP independent consortium has published their report on the top ten high-risk locations on Spain´s secondary road network.

The report is based around the number of fatal incidents for the period between 2012 and 2014, the length and type of the section of road, and the average daily traffic, known as the IMD, or Intensidad Media de Diaria de tráfico.

The calculations are then based on factors such as a road with a low IMD but a high number of incidents will be classed as a higher risk than a road with a higher IMD.

In total, there are 97 routes considered, of which 18 are “black-spots”, over a total of 3,506 kilometres.

The profile of the most dangerous road is a conventional single carriageway road, with junctions, and an IMD of below 10,000 vehicles per day. A section becomes extremely dangerous when there is an increase in the number of junctions, such as those adjoining properties, where vehicles join the flow of traffic but are not always able to accelerate to a safe speed. The risk factor is further increased by the mixture of road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, agricultural machinery and other vehicles with differences in speed and physical characteristics.

The condition of the road surface and the road markings also play a key role in either reducing or increasing the risk factor on these roads.

Five of the ten most dangerous sections for motorcycles and mopeds are in Andalusia; followed by Catalonia with 3 and Madrid with 2. For motorcyclists, the most dangerous section is in the A-2 in Barcelona, between kilometre markers 605 and 611. As for heavy vehicles, the stretch of the A-7 between Puzol and its junction with the A-3 in Valencia has the highest concentration of incidents.

Overall, Galicia, Cataluña and Asturias have some of the most dangerous roads in the country. The number of incidents has decreased by over 40%, but the probability of an incident is three times higher than in 2010.

The Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra, are the only regions where there are no sections of road classed as dangerous.

The most dangerous section of road is on the N-320 between Casar de Talamanca (Guadalajara) and its crossing with the M-103 in Algete (Madrid). In this section of just 11.2 kilometres, there were 10 fatalities, 6 of whom were on motorcycles or mopeds.

Here are the rest of the locations, in order, from 2 to 10.