Almost two-thirds of England’s 1,000 miles of single carriageway trunk roads have been awarded just two out of a possible four stars for safety by the Road Safety Foundation.

The Foundation has inspected 95% of the 4,400-mile Highways Agency network in the country, and has scored it under an international rating system being applied worldwide as part of a new approach by leading authorities to make road infrastructure safer.

The European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) Road Protection Score is a scale for rating roads on how well the design protects users from death or disabling injury when a crash occurs.

Four stars is the highest rating and motorways without deficiencies achieve this.

Of the Agency's network, some 50% of motorways reach four-star level, 78% of dual carriageways earn three stars.

Dr Joanne Hill, Foundation director, said: "Our assessment of trunk roads considers three key elements: the protection provided if vehicles run off the road; the risk of head-on collisions; and the safety of junctions.

"Motorways are our safest roads, scoring well on two of these factors but half do not protect road users who, for whatever reason, run off the road.

"Dual carriageways score well on head-on protection with 97% reaching the highest standard - but 90% fail to reach the highest standards for run-off protection.

“A quarter feature surface level junctions, lay-bys and minor accesses which do not afford the protection necessary for busy inter-urban roads, giving them low scores.

"Overall scores combined, 78% of the dual carriageway network rates three stars.

“Single carriageways lack most of the safety features that would protect road users and almost two-thirds (62%) get an overall rating of two stars.

“Some 91% fail to reach high standards for run-off. Head-on collisions are prevented only by road markings. Where road sections have junctions, few layouts rate well.”