Need to make a dangerous road safer - how??

JollyHappy

We live near a busy road and a dangerously laid out junction.

Today, there was a 6/7 car pile up - only 3 days after a 2 car smash at exactly the same spot. A few months ago, a car ended up on it's roof somehow in a collision with a post.

As far as we're aware, there were no fatalities in any of these smashes, although one person was seriously hurt. Myself and my neighbours feel it's only a matter of time before someone here is killed.

My neighbours and I really believe that if the road junction lay-out was changed, it would prevent things like this from happening - but we're not sure how to go about "campaigning" to get it changed.

Has anyone had any experience of this and could offer advice, such as who do we contact first etc?

Thank you

Sgt_Pepper_2

Your local council will have someone who's job it is to do site safety surveys.

alastairq

Whilst I have never had the need to attempt this sort of change, I suggest contacting your Local Councillor first...get them on side, but make sure you have plenty of clear evidence...gut feelings don't hack it, I'm afraid.

The local Highway Authority can also be contacted.....perhaps with a view to seeing if anything is already in the pipeline?

A lack of progress may well be down to a lack of finance in the end....especially if the best solution involves major expenditure?

If RTC's are mounting up, I have noted that if no injuries are sustained , then there isn't a priority..however, once people start getting hurt, things change......a sad way to progress, but that's the way these things run sometimes.

Throbbe

The highway authority will use police data to compile statistics on the most 'dangerous' junctions, and these will be prioritised.

However, as above, having your local councillor on side may help in getting something done.

Strider590

The inevitable solution will be to blame speeding, lower the speed limit and put it "road calming measures". This will cause even more problems and then when approached the council will simply say "we did what was asked".

This happened locally and they reduced a dual carriageway to one lane and reduced the limit to 40, WHICH then resulted in drivers racing each other for the merge point and made it impossible to exit side junctions, since then there have been no less than 20 minor accidents all within a few metres of each other, with at least 2 accidents where vehicles ended up the wrong way up.

Why not show us a Google map of the junction in question, so that we may assess it for ourselves and give some positive suggestions as to what to approach the council with.

Hintza

We have a junction (A road and B road) that has a serious accident on a weekly basis there have been plans for a roundabout for years. There is now petition but with cuts it is not looking promising short term.

There have been deaths and the air ambulance is quite often called.

mattyprice4004

Can you link us to the junction on something like Google Maps so we can take a look?

JollyHappy

It won't let me post a link to Google maps.

I have contacted our local councillor & he said he's had the same concerns for a number of years, so is hoping to get a site visit organised with the local highways department

Notmyrealname

JollyHappy wrote: »

We live near a busy road and a dangerously laid out junction.

No such thing as a dangerous road, just incompetent drivers.

We used to live on a dual carriageway which was the main road into a seaside resort. It was only about a mile long and was a 40 limit going to a 30 limit a few hundred yards before our house. It then went into a single carriageway a few hundred yards later. The side we were on was downhill so you could see the entire length of it. Yet every single year there were several accidents, all during summer and when traffic wasn't moving that quickly.

Andy_L

JollyHappy wrote: »

It won't let me post a link to Google maps.

Can you give us the road names/numbers & the general area, someone else can post the link

Strider590

Notmyrealname wrote: »

No such thing as a dangerous road, just incompetent drivers.

I'm sorry, but that's b0ll0cks.....

To say "No such thing as a dangerous road, just incompetent drivers", is no better than "it's a limit, not a target" and "it's not a race".
It's a "one liner", an instant argument winner for those lacking the intelligence to front a real logical argument.

Badly designed roads can and do cause thousands of accidents every single year.