THE M50 has been named the safest motorway in England and Wales, according to government and traffic data.

The M50 is a short motorway which connects Ross-on-Wye to the larger M5 near Tewksbury. This short distance means there are an average of just 25,000 vehicles on the road per day, 40,000 fewer than the national average, making it one of the quieter motorways by this metric.

There are just 0.3 collisions per kilometre of the motorway, one of the lowest rates in the country, well below the average of one per km; as well as the second-lowest delay per vehicle per mile anywhere in the country (3.5 seconds).

In comparison the data demonstrates that the M25 is the most hazardous motorway in the country.