A fatal accident is waiting to happen

After yet another serious accident on the Harbury Lane/ Fosse Way crossroads this week, the residents of Harbury and surrounding villages have had enough of WCC’s failure to do anything about improving the situation.

The sense of concern about WCC’s lack of activity on this issue and the frustration of the local residents who have to use this junction can be gauged from the fact that over 400 signatures were logged on the petition within 12 hours of it being opened.

I personally would prefer to not have the daily worry of wondering whether my family have successfully crossed that junction on a daily basis on their way to and from work. The local residents know how dangerous the junction is and take precautions when negotiating it, but they shouldn’t have to have this stress every time they use the junction - the junction should be made a safe place to cross.

According to police-reported Road Traffic Accident data, on the Department for Transport website, there were nine accidents at this junction in 2013, which may not seem a lot, but if you compare this with the rest of Warwickshire it is on a par with the accident ratio in significantly more built-up areas.

A lot of the blame will be put on the increased Jaguar Land Rover traffic that use this route to Bishops Itchington to avoid the queues on the Gaydon junction of the M40, but the locals know that these crossroads were an accident hotspot long before Jaguar Land Rover arrived.

On Leamington FC match days there is also an increase in traffic at this junction, particularly from away fans who normally access the ground from the Fosse side and are mostly unfamiliar with the hazards of this junction

Everyone knows there is a fatal accident waiting to happen there. We shouldn’t have to wait until someone is killed there before anything is done.

Money was invested in improving the situation at the other end of the road (the Harbury Lane/Bishops Tachbrook junction) and the accident rate has reduced dramatically there (although the cynic in me says that was probably in preparation for the done-deed of the new housing that is going up there).

We are asking WCC to be pro-active and do something now, before it has a death on its hands to answer for, after being told and given the opportunity to avoid it.

The petition can be signed at https://democratic.warwickshire.gov.uk/cmis5/Petitions/tabid/90/ID/59/SelectedTab/Signatures/Harbury-Lane-Fosse-Way-x-roads.aspx

Pete Kostiuk, Harbury