CALLS are continuing to be made for a solution to be found to an accident-plagued road near Uttoxeter following another fatal crash there last month.
However, highways bosses are refusing to be drawn on whether it will be investigating the B5030 Rocester to Uttoxeter road, the main route to Alton Towers, following numerous crashes on the stretch over the last month.
The latest fatal accident on the road happened in November when former Thomas Alleyne’s High School pupil Stephen Hallam was killed when his Ford Focus left the road near to the JCB World Headquarters at Rocester.
Flowers and tributes still mark the spot on the B5030 where the tragedy took place and an investigation into how the crash happened is still ongoing.
County councillor Mike Maryon, cabinet member for highways and transport at Staffordshire County Council, said: “We monitor all accidents reported to us, and will look at any particular area to see if anything can be done to prevent something happening in the future.
“However, in this case we would not want to pre-empt the police investigation which is currently ongoing.”
Only last week at Crakemarsh on the B5030 a car crashed into a hedge.
The Advertiser asked readers who use the stretch what they thought needed to be done to make the road safer.
Craig Maydew, a former group health and safety manager at JCB, said he thought crash barriers needed to be installed along the road.
He said: “Firstly the road is under classified because from Uttoxeter to Rocester it actually feels like an A road.
“Secondly the crash barriers that were removed would have prevented Mr Hallam from hitting the tree.
“There needs to be new crash barriers installed from the Combridge junction all the way down to the junction with Hollington Road.
“Speed controls alone will not prevent accidents – physical protective measures were there and were removed.”
Libby Hill, from Uttoxeter, said: “I can’t see why there are so many accidents there unless people forget it’s not a dual carriageway. Maybe hashes between the lanes would better indicate this.
“I’ve done the A518 every day since 2004, which again has accidents almost every week, and that’s overtaking that causes the issues.”
Philip Wood, from Rocester, said flooding on to the road seems to an increasing issue.
He said: “Where the accidents have happened lately it is not at the junction with JCB where crashes have happened in the past but further down the road.
“It does flood there so aqua-planing could be an issue. I avoid the road when it is peak time for Alton Towers.”
What do you think? Email your views to james.brindle@staffordshirenewspapers.co.uk.
