"KILLER roads" in North and East Yorkshire have been highlighted in a new report from a leading motoring organisation.

An 18-month study by the AA-led European-Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) has given safety stars to more than 800 UK roads, including highways in the region.

Top of the local danger list is the A59 from Skipton to Harrogate, which weighed in at 27th worst nationally.

But there are also concerns over the A170 from Thirsk to Scarborough, the A166 from York to Driffield, the A63 from Sherburn to Howden and the A19 from Selby to York.

Stars have been awarded on the number of accidents which take place on a road in a given time period. The lower the number of stars, the higher the number of accidents on the road.

An average road scores between two and three stars - all the ones named above merited only one.

The AA hopes the statistics will allow highways authorities and engineers to compare similar roads in an effort to identify the hidden killers among them.

John Dawson, AA policy director and EuroRAP chairman, said: "We have to make roads more forgiving - everyday human error shouldn't carry a death sentence.

"People should not be dying on major routes because basic protection is absent from entirely predictable collisions, such as with unfenced roadside objects.

"We cannot demand five-star cars from manufacturers and then settle for one-star roads.

"The cars we drive, the way we drive and the roads we drive them on are all part of a single safety system.

"In three years, most of the roads we have examined have seen death and injury on a scale that if they occurred in a rail disaster would generate national headlines and soul searching."

Mike Moore, director of environmental services at North Yorkshire County Council, which manages the A59 and A170, said: "I welcome the AA report. Anything that raises the profile of road safety has to be a good thing.

"The period of the AA survey was 1997 to 1999. In that time we have brought down the number of killed and casualties by 28 per cent.

"We will continue to strive to reduce that figure."

Updated: 11:47 Monday, February 18, 2002