Councilor Davies your " no history of accidents" needs to be revised as yet again there was two cars involved in an accident at the back of my house this evening 10/10/13, so another incident since the 19th of August.

Thank you for your response regarding this matter.

I am very pleased to hear at long last that some measure of common sense will prevail and that any barrier to replace the damaged one will be more robust than that in place at present and I hope it wilo be of sufficient standard to withstand frontal impact as was the case on this occasion.

With regard to RTA incidents you mention, statistically you can not look at this as an exact location, ie my daughter’s garden, but only as the road which carries the traffic, as do the police and probably your road safety partnership. For your information this incident actually started at the Washingborough Road Junction and finished in my daughter’s garden, so just looking at this small section of road using publicly available information I can state with confidence there have been 17 RTA reportable incidents along this stretch between 2006 and 2011 and from personal memory several others since, some very recent. You will know that there are high volumes of traffic along this road ie, your pinchpoint proposals and also that RTAs do occur frequently with high volumes of traffic.

Regretably I am unable to accept your submissions regarding cost as a limiting factor as the majority cost of making good this damage will be recharged to the drivers insurance, and they no doubt would have to accept that any barrier installed would have to meet current safety standards, so I would expect you would only have to find a small difference in any additional upgrade which is clearly supported on safety grounds out of an annual budget of millions of pounds is a negligible amount.

apart from my families safety I would like to remind you the police report on the radio stated had this occurred during school time the consequences would have been unthinkable.. With a school around the corner I would have thought this would have caused an immediate response to protect them walking past at least as nothing protects them currently.

We have formally Mailed LCC asking for a response to my concerns, I await their reply also.
Thank you for giving this your attention
Ruth Harvey

Hi Andrew,

I understand and sympathise that this accident has shocked and caused distress to you, but I would like you to consider the facts surrounding the accident.

The circumstances of this accident are totally unique. The barrier was in place for over 20 years and there wasn’t one comparable accident during this time. It was not designed to be hit head on nor can it be as this would pose a significant danger to motorists.

We will shortly start work to replace the safety barrier and I can confirm a stronger barrier will be in place. This will be a similar barrier to the ones in place in the middle of the Lincoln bypass, so that gives you an idea of the protection it will offer.

Keeping all residents safe on the county’s highways is of paramount importance to Lincolnshire County Council and myself. We will continue to spend our limited budget on improving the county’s roads in an attempt to reduce accident and casualty figures.

Councillor Davies

You have stated in the Lincolnshire Echo today that you are not going to replace the Kingsway junction road crash barrier with a stronger one. In reponse to this, I would like to point out that clearly the previous road crash barrier at this site FAILED and was not up to standard so why wouldn’t you replace it with a stronger one? This is a re-occuring comment being stated by members of the public signing our petition.

You automatically talk about using tax payers money to fund all of this damage, yet if I personally had destroyed two sets of traffic lights, a roadside barrier,bollards and a pedestrian railing, I feel certain I could expect a bill for the damage through my letterbox. All i’ve continued to publically hear from you is how the taxpayers money (to which my family FULLY pay into every month I might add) will only be spent elsewhere, due to a a lack of accidents at this specific spot. This is unacceptable & quite simply NEGLIGENT to us as Lincoln city residents.

This road is part of the A15 and a main route through Lincolnshire connecting Peterborough to Hull. There is a tremendous volume of traffic passing this junction day and night. Heavy goods vehicles use this road as a through route, so by your thinking, a vehicle has to crash into my house and seriously injury or kill someone before you’ll act? AND you claim that there has to be a pattern/track record of this happening too??? How many lives are we talking about then that must suffer before you will take a PROACTIVE approach to safey rather than REACTIVE?

You now say that you’ll get round to replacing the pedestrian railing, well I’m not holding any confidence that this will happen any time soon, it is plain to see by looking round the streets of Lincoln that many barriers and railings have been involed in accidents and have been left twisted and broken, evidence can be seen not more than 200 yards from our house just before Pelham Bridge.

I realise you have many important issues to attend to and you view ours as less important than taking the time to comment on TV aout the importance of the ‘on hold music’ on the councils office telephone lines. This is our HOME we are talkin about, as a result of this on going potical game play you represent where you are reeling out standard statements designed to fob off a serious issue on the belief of it being ‘unique’ or somehow considered not serious enough due to lack of fatality, my family now live in daily fear of being anywhere at the rear of our property. Whilst you continue to drag your heels, my family and the other Kingsway resisdents are not protected whatsoever from this happening again. Its happened once, it COULD happen again, you can’t tell me it won’t.

Andrew Cowley

Dear Mr Davies
After listening to your comments on Look North yesterday I feel that once again you have shown your lack of understanding for the need for additional safety at the Canwick Road/Kingsway junction. Despite you saying that this area has no history of accidents of this kind, over the years there have been many serious road traffic accidents along this stretch of road due to the high volume of traffic. By saying that you were not prepared to install barriers makes me think you didn’t know there were actually barriers already in place. The fact that barriers ARE already there, is proof in itself there is a need for them, however, their failure in this instance shows that they are not fit for purpose and that any repair should include something substantially stronger. The police have already said that it was the tree in my daughter’s garden that prevented the car from hitting the house. This tree was demolished in the accident so now there is no protection at all.
I would also like to highlight the point that Andrew Cowley my son in law made about the school a few yards away and that school children walk along this dangerous stretch of road every day to school. Have we really got to wait until one of these little ones is killed before something is done? I was under the impression that risk assessment is all about prevention and the fact that this has actually happened health and safety regulations would automatically put measures into place to prevent anything like this ever happening again.
We are appalled that no attempt has been made to repair this barrier nearly 5 weeks after the incident.
I would like to invite you to the area to take a look at it yourself..to look at the broken barriers and see how you would feel if you lived here, to stand in the garden and see what it’s like and whether you would allow your children,if you have any, to play there and feel safe. Maybe then you would understand how we all feel.
Our MP is already aware of our concerns and following your response on Look North,we will be asking him about the statement you made as its left us wondering if this is an acceptable way to treat innocent victims of a traumatic accident to their home in what comes across as a dismissive and uncaring way and has left them living in fear and unable to let their daughter play in the garden anymore until something is done to increase the protection from the already installed but now damaged safety barriers surrounding their garden.
Sincerely
Ruth Harvey (Mrs)

Hello I am posting in reponce to your statement on look north regarding the call for a stronger roadside barrier outside my family homein Lincoln.

If installing a stronger barrier in that area is a waste of tax payers money, because you say that there is no history of accidents in this area although the accident that happened on the road directly at the back of my garden a couple of months before that has left a speed limet sign littering the pathment and the accident a week later that closed canick hill must have been missed by you and your department.

Why did the council put a roadside barrier there at the tax payers expence in the first place?

There must have been a risk accessment done by the council that highlighted the need for one or are you saying that roadside barriers are just placed at the tax payers expence anywhere?

The barrier failed to stop a car from leaving the road and destroying my garden. I’m asking for this to be replaced with a stronger one because clearly the prevous one wasn’t up to the job.

You say that you want to spend the money in areas that have had fatal accidents i understand that but me or my year old daughter shouldn’t have to be killed to prevent other deaths, there is a primary school less than 500 yards away the kids have to walk on the path that we thought was protected by the previous barrier to go to school by your thinking one of them would have to die before your departmemt would act?

Right now there is no protection of any kind and when i’ve asked about time scale as to repair of the barrier it would appear that your department is happy to leave the broken old one proped up at the side of the road.

Your lack of understanding has shown the people of Lincoln that you have no intrest in there safety, and thanks to your tone and comments in your interview vast number are pledging there support to the petition.

We just want to feel safe in our home, we didn’t ask for a car to destroy our garden and before we never thought that the barrier would fail.

Replace the barrier with a stronger one or just replace the barrier.
Thank you Andrew Cowley

@yvonne – The Newark roadworks are difficult as it is always going to be tough to work on a congested part of the road network – we’ve tweaked the layout and it’s working as well as can be expected.
@doormatbrown – completely agree, top priority!

As a town we are in absolute desperate need of a bypass to remove the a52 traffic from the centre of the town. I don’t think it matters what reroute is used so long as one is put in place and the traffic is reduced in the town centre. <a href=“”http://doormatbrown.co.uk">http://doormatbrown.co.uk">Matt</a> – @doormatbrown

Perhaps this gentleman should get on his bike to go and view the roadworks in Lincoln and the total mayhem that the total lack of planning has caused. By the way good sir, use your bike. Car journeys along Brant Road are taking over an hour for a quarter of a mile. Was it too expensive to put in 3 sets of traffic lights at eack road junction? Given the space at the end of Brant road, it seems to me that a roundabout would have been a better option.

Don't forget to vote folks! http://t.co/rmYjXoav