THE inner ring road in Bradford is one of the most dangerous roads for fatal and serious collisions in the district, statistics reveal.

Accidents on the A6181 tripled – from seven to 22 – in the three years from 2015 to 2017 compared to 2012-2014, a 214% rise.

Among the serious accidents on the 3.5-mile stretch were the death in September 2017 of mother-of-five Kathleen Farman who was knocked down on the pedestrian crossing outside the Jobcentre on Hall Ings.

Speeding driver Liaquat Ali was jailed for more than five years for causing the 54-year-old's death by dangerous driving in a court case the following year. His sentence was later reduced by four months on appeal.

The A6181 runs in a loop between the Leeds Road junction with the Shipley Airedale Road and the Hamm Strasse/Canal Road junction via Hall Ings, Godwin Street, Westgate and Drewton Road.

It takes in numerous pedestrian crossings and busy junctions including the Hall Ings/Bridge Street crossroads.

The statistics come from the Road Safety Foundation (RSF) which has plotted all the road traffic collisions across the UK on motorways and A roads in its latest report.

According to its figures, there were one fatal and two serious accidents recorded at the junction of Sunbridge Road and Godwin Street and four serious RTCs where Manningham Lane meets Drewton Road.

Other roads in the district which have seen clusters of accidents in 2015-17 include the A6177 Outer Ring Road which saw a fatal crash and two more serious incidents near its junction with Fairbank Road and six serious collisions near the Horton Grange Road/Great Horton Road junction. A stretch of the A641 Manchester Road near the Mayo Avenue junction saw five accidents and the A647 at Thornbury saw six serious incidents.

Overall on A roads in the Bradford district, the RSF says there has been a 10% fall in fatal and serious crashes between the two time periods.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "Driver error is normally involved in crashes, however often at crash cluster sites there are common factors which contribute to the collision.

"For example, poor vision at junctions, poor drainage on the carriageway or insufficient signage warning of danger ahead. Where there are clusters of crashes highway authorities investigate these to identify common treatable solutions."

Brian Lawton, for the Road Safety Foundation, said: "The numbers of fatal and serious crashes appear to have risen substantially on the A6181 between 2012-14 and 2015-17, just as they’ve fallen substantially on the A650, for example.

"We haven’t investigated the reasons for the changes in crash figures on most of the roads analysed, aside from requesting details from the road authorities responsible for those roads which are classified as ‘most improved’.

"Despite the scale of the reduction on the A650, the change in numbers here was not significant enough for it to qualify statistically as a ‘most improved’ road – the reduction here may have been due to natural statistical variation rather than because of any action that was taken – the same principle may well hold where numbers have increased, such as on the A6181.

"Overall on the ‘A’ roads managed by Bradford Metropolitan District Council, the number of fatal and serious crashes fell by more than 10% between the two time periods, compared with a national average of just a 1% reduction."

The A6033 between Cross Roads, near Haworth, and Hebden Bridge is among the RSF's 50 highest risk roads in the UK and parts of it are being closed for safety work by Calderdale Council with money from the Government's Safer Roads Fund.

Mr Lawton added: "We identified that two sections of the A6033 were amongst 50 highest risk ‘A’ roads in 2016; subsequently, these were both eligible for the Safer Roads Fund.

"Our most recent analysis has identified the A629 south of Keighley [which goes to Halifax] as being one of around 80 persistently higher risk roads."

He said that local authorities also carry out far more detailed analyses of high risk locations than the RSF is able to in its work, though their hope is that publishing the annual report, it further encourages road authorities to work to prevent deaths and serious injuries on their roads.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said that given Bradford Council had a Road Safety Team and issue the Road Safety Plan, it would be more appropriate for them to comment on road safety.

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said: “Bradford Council is committed to preventing road collisions through a range of measures including changes to road layouts, speed limit reductions and the provision of facilities for vulnerable road users.

“In addition the Council engages in various partnership activities to provide education, training and publicity; this includes being part of the Police-led Operation Steerside which has built on the partnership approach and specifically tackles dangerous and anti-social driving.

“We have also begun our biggest ever roll-out of 20mph zones in district centres and around school sites.

“As a result of our combined activities we have seen the overall number of collisions on the district’s roads reduce by almost half in the last 10 years.

“There is an on-going analysis of collisions data to highlight patterns that assist in determining appropriate interventions and prioritise funding. Of course the availability of any other intelligence that might assist in identifying areas of concern is welcomed. Road Safety officers will be therefore be closely analysing the report.”