M25 'Britain's most risky motorway'

The M25 London Orbital is Britain's most dangerous and congested motorway route, a traffic study has found.

Last month 68 crashes caused a record 85 hours of hold-ups and queues on the 117-mile motorway, according to statistics released by the travel data company Trafficmaster.

Over the month, the M25 was closed in at least one direction 18 times, forcing millions of motorists to find alternative routes, compared with 10 times for the M1 and four times for the M4. There were 49 serious crashes on the M1 during the month and 48 on the M4, resulting in 69 and 57 hours of heavy congestion respectively.

At peak periods, well-known troublespots often run at or near full capacity, increasing potential for collisions, the report's authors say, particularly when traffic begins to become congested and "bunch". Trafficmaster said journey times during rush hours now take up to four times longer than those during off-peak times. On the M25 the main troublespots are the anti-clockwise section from the M1 to the M3 – a journey that takes about 30 minutes in an off-peak period but two hours in the evening rush hour – and the M1 to the Dartford Crossing (40 minutes off-peak, 115 in the rush hour).

The M5 and the M6 also suffered severe congestion (64 and 46 hours) with 13 closures on the former and eight on the latter. Rush-hour journeys on the M6 to the north of Birmingham took more than twice as long as off-peak trips. Other particularly congested routes included the M8 in Glasgow and the M62 in West Yorkshire.