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A1 named as England’s deadliest road for animals

Freedom of information requests have revealed that the A1 is the worst road in England for animal deaths, with 112 fatalities recorded over nine months last year

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The most deadly road for animals in England has been revealed.

The A1, which is the UK’s longest numbered road at 410 miles and stretches from London to Edinburgh, had 112 deaths recorded on its English stretch between April and December 2017.

Among the animal casualties were 37 deer, 31 foxes and a swan, according to freedom of information (FOI) requests. Its shorter sister road, the 193-mile M1, recorded 41 deaths.

The FOI requests also found that 1,225 animals were killed in total across the country on motorways and other major roads from April 1 to December 4 last year.

The M6 came second in the standings (PA)
The M6 came second in the standings (PA)

The second deadliest road was the M6 – the UK’s longest motorway at 230 miles – where 62 animals were killed. Among them was a heron – the only such death recorded in the country.

Requests were made for data on more than 100 numbered roads in England, all of which had at least one incident.

Other animals to be killed included 143 cats, 83 dogs, 11 barn owls and 21 otters, plus a peacock that was hit on the A174 in North Yorkshire.

Just two hedgehog deaths were reported, but government company Highways England, which released the data, said the true number was likely to be higher because it only recorded incidents where it was asked to respond.

A spokesperson said: “Safety is our key imperative and we take steps to try and prevent animals getting on to our roads.

“As a result, the proportion of incidents involving animals on our roads is extremely low considering that four million drivers use our roads each day.”

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