MORE than 300 accidents have happened on the A14 this year alone, making it one of the most dangerous roads in the country.East Anglia's arterial road has been identified as eighth in the top ten most dangerous roads in Britain.

MORE than 300 accidents have happened on the A14 this year alone, making it one of the most dangerous roads in the country.

East Anglia's arterial road has been identified as eighth in the top ten most dangerous roads in Britain.

The news comes just a week after the road was brought to a halt twice - once following an accident on the Orwell Bridge, which brought Ipswich to a standstill and the next day at Higham near Bury St Edmunds.

According to the survey, carried out by keepmoving.co.uk a total of 323 accidents have occurred on the A14 so far this year.

The majority of the accidents in Suffolk happened eastbound from Sproughton to the Copdock interchange, westbound from Wherstead to the Copdock interchange and westbound from Stowmarket east to Stowmarket west. Each area has had a total of seven incidents so far in 2007.

Most of the accidents on the road however happened along the Cambridge stretch.

The A14, which runs from the port of Felixstowe and stretches to the junction of the M1 and M6, is currently undergoing a £32 million improvement scheme at Haughley in an attempt to make the road safer.

The scheme, includes a new two-level junction at Tot Hill to give safer access to the A14 for the villages of Haughley, Haughley New Street, Harleston, and Stowmarket.

Much of the initial construction work will be carried out to the south of the existing A14 carriageway so disruption to road users should be kept to a minimum. The new road is due to be linked up to the A14 next year.

Guy McGregor, portfolio holder for road safety and highways for Suffolk County Council, said: “Suffolk is aware of the need to focus upon the reduction of 'killed and seriously injured' on our roads and we have just set up a road safety group which includes representatives from the highways agency, the East Anglian Ambulance Service, Suffolk constabulary, the Safecam Partnership and the fire and emergency services to identify the cause of 'killed and seriously injured' on our roads.”

Do you think the A14 is a dangerous road? Has enough been done to make the road as safe as possible?

Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.