Bolton: Supercars keep crashing on same stretch of road
Beaumont Road in Bolton, particularly a stretch close to the Brittania hotel has seen a number of horrific crashes in recent years, the latest earlier this month seeing a car overturning, causing massive damage to the vehicle.
The road links Chorley New Road to the M61.
The stretch of dual carriageway, which is close to both Beaumont Primary School and St Bernard’s RC Primary School, has a 50mph limit but residents claim cars travel much faster and sometime lose control.
The stretch of Beaumont Road where residents say there have been frequent crashes
Amy Smith has written to the council requesting a vehicle restraint system to be installed along the stretch to protect pedestrians as she is worried someone might be killed or get seriously hurt if the frequency of accidents continues.
She said: “We have once again had a car land on its roof on Beaumont Road.
“I’ve lived here for seven years and I can count on two hands the number of times that cars have crashed in the same place along this road, many of them landing upside down.
“The road has a speed limit of 50mph – faster than the East Lancs road.
“There’s no pedestrian safety through any vehicle restraint system at all.
“I fear that it will take somebody getting killed for the council to take notice.
“When it does happen, and it will, I will be making it known that I have raised this and pedestrian safety has been completely disregarded.
“The local community are getting annoyed with these super cars crashing here. We are desperate.”
A car overturned after losing control in wet conditions earlier this month
Amy said there are guard rails further down the road to safeguard the railway line.
She added: “Surely pedestrians can be afforded the same protection as the railway line?”
Kerry Titmus, 44, from Lostock, said: “Travelling at speed obviously puts other road users at risk but it’s the people who are actually walking up and down that road.
“There’s a lot of children walk between home and school and I think they are potentially vulnerable.
“I witnessed one of the most recent crashes as I was driving down Beaumont Road.
“The driver was absolutely flying coming the opposite way from me.
“It was raining and he lost control of the car, it span and then flipped across four lanes into the hedge on the opposite side and landed on its roof.
“Luckily there were no pedestrians or other cars in its path.”
Police and fire officers attended Beaumont Road after the most recent crash
Lindsay Hellewell, 40, was in a car when struck by a speeding car on Beaumont Road. She said: “We were in a car crash on the road around this time last year.
“Leaving a side road a white BMW 5 series car approached us at 70 or 80mph, jumped the red light and completely went under us.
“We span all down the road.
“Anything which makes the road safer will be welcome.”
As far back as November 2017, Greater Manchester road police were warning of excessive speed on the particular stretch of Beaumont Road in question.
They released a picture of a prestige Ferrari sports car worth more than £100,000 smashed up after a crash.
In a tongue-in-cheek post on Twitter, GMP Traffic said: “Beaumont Road, Bolton. Driver said he was only doing 52 in a 50 mph area. Thoughts?”
A follow-up tweet from the traffic unit said: “Well the driver has just tested positive for cannabis, so that’s probably played a part.”
A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “We understand the concern that road traffic accidents and speeding can cause the local community.
“Road safety is a key priority for the council, we work closely with GMP to address this issue and we are also working in collaboration with partners across GM to develop a ‘Vision Zero’ strategy.
“Speeding is a driver behaviour issue and, unfortunately, it has been shown that traffic calming measures will not stop people who are determined to drive irresponsibly.
“Traffic calming measures are designed to prevent accidents – not to stop speeding or dangerous driving, which are matters for the police.
“We use accident data, provided by the police, to prioritise the areas in most need of traffic calming measures and analysis of the available accident data reveal four collisions during the past three years, resulting in eight slight casualties.
“Two collisions involved turning vehicles and two were rear end shunts; and the data shows that there have been no casualties caused by vehicles leaving the carriageway.
“All traffic calming measures must be considered alongside feasibility and affordability.”
Source – INDIA TV
