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Crofton horror bus smash could happen again
RTA near Redbeck Motel Doncaster Rd Crofton Wakefield 9 Nov 2012
A HORROR smash which left two people fighting for their lives and 13 others injured could happen again.
The two men, aged 20 and 29, were passengers in a VW Golf when it smashed head-on into an Arriva bus near the Redbeck railway bridge, on Doncaster Road.
The bus driver, a 64-year-old woman, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following the smash at about 2.15pm, last Friday.
Dorothea Moorhouse, 57, of Ivy Lane, Eastmoor, was a passenger on the 149 service.
She was left with a broken cheekbone, cuts and bruises and needing stitches to her lip.
She said: “I can’t sleep properly, I just wake up screaming and trembling because I’ve been reliving it all.
“I thought a bomb had gone off. That’s what it sounded like. Then it was just absolutely silent for a while as people realised what had happened.
“There was a little baby on board who looked about six months old. Thankfully I think they were alright.”
It was the 25th crash on the same stretch of road in the past 10 years.
David Baines, of Redbeck Farm Shop, said it was the worst he had ever seen.
Trevor Chalkley, chairman of Crofton Parish Council, said urgent traffic calming measures were needed on the road.
He said: “This is definitely going to keep happening, and people are going to be killed, if nothing is done.
“This stretch of road is littered with sites of serious traffic accidents and fatalities, and if this crash had happened an hour later it could have been a bus full of children.”
Insp Richard Clare, of the rural neighbourhood police team (NPT), said the stretch was notorious for speeding and that officers would normally clock four speeders an hour exceeding the 40mph speed limit.
Mr Chalkley said parish councillors had been campaigning for traffic calming measures on the stretch for years, and said plans for hundreds of homes to be built in Crofton would make it more dangerous.
But the council said the stretch did not meet the criteria for cameras, which is calculated by the number of severe incidents, speed limit and prevalence of speeding.
Ian Thomson, service director for planning, transportation and highways, said: “This was a serious accident which has understandably prompted debate about safety on our roads.
“The council will continue to regularly monitor information relating to all accidents that cause injury in the district and take action where necessary. We are working with the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership to make sure we take all possible steps to keep our roads as safe as possible.”
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