Safety campaigners have launched a Code for Countryside Roads as new analysis shows there are 70% more deaths on rural roads than urban ones.
The code, launched by NFU Mutual in partnership with the UK's four farming unions, aims to tackle the disproportionate loss of life on rural roads.
Official DfT figures shows that there are 70% more deaths on rural roads than urban highways, despite there being fewer than half the number of collisions.
Publishing its findings in the 2024 rural road safety report, NFU Mutual found that collisions on rural roads are around four times more likely to result in a fatality.
In 2023, an average of one in every 32 collisions (969 of 31,183) on rural highways resulted in a death, compared to one in every 122 (571 of 69,706) on urban roads.
The figures reflect a persistent trend of disproportionate danger on rural roads and the avoidable loss of hundreds of lives each year in the UK’s countryside.
Nick Turner, chief executive of NFU Mutual, said: “Rural roads are the arteries of our countryside, vital to the rural economy and serving to connect us all to the benefits of the great outdoors.
“It is therefore all the more concerning that each year a vastly disproportionate number of lives are lost on rural roads.
"We are keenly aware of the importance of countryside roads and the distress and disruption caused by collisions – particularly on the sad occasions where a life is lost."
In 2023, motorists and their passengers were almost four times more likely to lose their lives on a rural road than an urban highway.
Rural road fatalities for people travelling in cars and vans totalled 559 in 2023, compared to 147 urban fatalities.
A survey conducted in November by NFU Mutual found that 13% of people had been in a collision on a rural road, rising to almost one in five (19%) for those that live in the countryside.
Surprisingly, one in ten people living in urban areas had been involved in a collision on a rural road.
More than one fifth of respondents (21%) admitted to being uncomfortable travelling on rural roads, with a third of people without a car saying they’re uncomfortable on countryside roads.
Over a half of people said one of their biggest concern when it comes to rural road safety was blind corners (56%) and narrow roads (51%).
Road quality (48%), driver impatience (45%) and people breaking the speed limit (42%) were also high on the list.
And around a third were worried about navigating vulnerable road users and a quarter were concerned about dealing with agricultural traffic.
Mr Turner concluded: “Every road death is an avoidable tragedy, and every road user has a responsibility to protect themselves and others.
"But the disparity in safety between urban and rural roads and the higher risk shouldered by vulnerable road users suggests that more can be done."
