THE A414 between Harlow and Chelmsford has a high accident rate, according to the biggest study ever undertaken on the safety of Europe's roads.

But the road, which includes the Bobbingworth section which has seen numerous accidents over the years, is more than four times safer than the road branded the 'most dangerous' in Britain, the A889 near Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands.

The A414 receives a one-star rating which classes it as having a 'high accident rate' and is safer than ther the stretches of the A414 from Hertford.

The survey follows 18 months of work by the AA-led EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) which gave star ratings to more than 800 major UK roads, and a further 2,000 in three other countries, in the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain.

The A889 has an accident rate almost double that of the next most dangerous road, the A537 from Macclesfield in Cheshire to Buxton in Derbyshire, while the third most dangerous road is a short section of the A12 between Romford and the M25.

Of the 833 roads assessed in the UK, the Harlow to Chelmsford stretch of the A414 is one of 90 which received one star-ratings. Twenty-three were so bad they achieved no stars.

A total of 213 were given two stars, 415 three stars, with 92 gaining the top four-star rating.

Roads with no stars have accident rates ten times higher than the best performing roads in the four-star category. An average road scores between two and three stars.