COLCHESTER has the most dangerous roads in the county, according to crash figures released by Essex Police.

Provisional data from the force shows there were seven fatal road traffic accidents in the borough during 2015, the joint highest in Essex with Tendring, Chelmsford and Epping Forest.

But Colchester was the area with the most smashes which caused serious injuries with a total of 72 people hurt last year.

This means a total of 78 casualties who were classed as killed or seriously injured in the police’s data.

These included fatal crashes involving pedestrians in Cowdray Avenue, St Andrew’s Avenue, East Hill and Alefounder Close around Colchester town centre and rural smashes in Peldon Road, Little Wigborough and Birch Street in Birch.

Chairman of Colchester and District Driving Instructor’ Association Mark Cole said he was not surprised the figures were so high.

He said: “I see instances of dangerous and poor driving every single day – we are a nation of poor drivers.

“For someone to pass their test at 17 or 18 years old and for them to be left without testing again until they are 65 or 70 simply is not good enough.

“It would not happen if you were operating machinery in a factory, there should be stage testing.

“The roads in Colchester are a contributing factor – for example highways often replace bus lane road signs which have nothing wrong with them apart from the fact they are not shiny and new whilst danger triangles in more rural roads are covered up.

“There are also missing road markings at the Maldon Road roundabout.

“There are a lot of issues on the road which could be improved to reduce accidents.

“I think with busier lives people think they need to rush their driving in a big way.

“If people left for their journey five or ten minutes earlier then you would see a considerable drop in the amount of traffic collisions.”

Countywide figures for the first two months of this year have increased with 22 fatalities in this period compared to an average of 11.2 over the last five years.

The number of serious injuries has increased from an average of 152 to a total of 179.