Danger road 'must be dualled' claim (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Danger road 'must be dualled' claim

5:30pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News By Laura Shack

A DANGEROUS stretch of the A40 needs to become a dual carriageway before more people die.

That was the call from local residents and commuters after a 49-year-old van driver was killed in a head-on crash with a lorry on the road by Windrush, near Northleach, on Wednesday, September 19.

An air ambulance was scrambled to the scene but the man, from Longhope in the Forest of Dean, had already died by the time they arrived. The HGV driver survived with minor injuries and shock.

Northleach Parish Council chairman Neil Fletcher said slow moving traffic made drivers impatient on the A40 with most accidents caused by risky manoeuvres rather than speed.

"It’s just not adequate for the volume of traffic - it’s dangerous," he said. "I don’t think anything else except for a dual carriageway would improve it.

"People get frustrated being held up behind slow vehicles and then they overtake.

"And on that Windrush part it’s a very slow bend that continues for about a mile, so if you’re pulling out you’re only getting to see a few metres ahead."

On Twitter, Naunton farmer Jim Organ said he had been speaking with the HGV driver, who was due to collect wheat from his farm, just seconds before the crash.

"(The) van was on wrong side of road and hit him head on," he said. "I asked him if he was having a heart attack as he was hyperventilating so much... He never did come for his load of wheat."

Over the past five years, two crashes have resulted in fatalities and around 18 crashes have resulted in slight to serious injuries on the A40 up to the Gloucestershire border.

Further crashes have taken place over the Oxfordshire border towards the Burford roundabout.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said its Road Safety Partnership managed accident data from the police and would carry out action if it was felt appropriate.

Investigations are ongoing. Anyone with information has been asked to contact Gloucestershire Police on 101, quoting incident number 159 of September 19.