Road 'second worst in UK'
TWO treacherous stretches of road in Wakefield are within the top five most dangerous in the UK, according to new safety figures.
A 10km stretch of the A61 Barnsley Road, between Barnsley and Wakefield, was found to carry the second highest risk of accident in the country, based on the amount of major car crashes not involving motorcyclists.
And the A642 Aberford Road between the city centre and the M62 was placed fifth in the same category in the Road Safety Foundation's study.
The Express has reported on countless horror smashes on the roads over the past decade, including the story of Alan Ball, of Duke of York Avenue, Portobello, who was killed after being hit by a bus on Barnsley Road at the junction with Manygates Lane in 2002.
In 2007, Mazhar Hussain, of Agbrigg Road, was killed in a smash less than half a mile away on the same road, and the following year a woman was lucky to survive after an incident in the same area left her having to be cut from the wreckage by firefighters.
One in four accidents on the Barnsley Road stretch were found to involve pedestrians or cyclists, and nearly a third occurred at junctions.
Nearly 20 per cent of accidents were head-on smashes.
The road approaches the city through rural villages Woolley and Newmillerdam, with several blind bends and perilous hills leaving drivers unsighted.
Graham Franklin, chairman of Newmillerdam Community and Conservation Association, said residents were worried about lorries thundering through the village at high speed.
And Coun John Colley backed this up, saying motorists were ignoring the speed limits in rural villages.
He said: "If people stuck to the speed limit I really don't think there'd be as big a problem.
"But what can you do to stop it? The chance of getting speed cameras is almost nil due to the cost and the criteria ."
The police and Council this week vowed to make the road safer.
A spokesperson from West Yorkshire Police said: "The A61 is one of the major arterial routes through West Yorkshire. The majority of all our serious road traffic collisions occur on these roads, where speed limits tend to be higher and the nature of the roads lead to higher speed collisions.
"Unfortunately, when looking into the cause of many of the collisions on the A61 they are down solely to driver error. We would refute the road being classed as a 'collisions hotspot'."
Ian Wiper, Wakefield Council's Service Director for Transportation and Highways, said: "Wakefield and Barnsley Councils have continued working together to improve road safety along the A61.
"The latest EuroRAP figures cover the period 2006-2008. Comparing them against the 2004-2006 figures, the A61 rural and urban corridor has seen a 6 per cent reduction in people killed or serious accidents which is encouraging but obviously more needs to be done.
"Recently, a number of road safety improvements have been implemented along the A61 corridor in Wakefield which should bring about further improvement to the accident record. These include reducing the speed limit to 30mph between Standbridge Lane and Slack Lane and modifications to main road junctions on the urban sections of the route.
"We are continuing to monitor the accident record carefully to see if further measures are needed to improve the safety record of the A61."
Stanley Grove J&I School, on Aberford Road, began giving its pupils high-visibility jackets at the end of last year to help keep them safe.
Headteacher Joanne Frost said: "It is a very busy road and because of that there's even more reason for us to spread the message of road safety at this school so that parents and children can feel safer."
The Road Safety Foundation appealed for local authorities to improve roads, and claimed inexpensive maintenance could save billions in healthcare and emergency service call-outs.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wakefield
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
