A formal petition calling on South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) to implement a series of road safety improvement measures on Bradley Stoke Way is to be officially launched tomorrow (Saturday 15th).
The move comes after an accident on Friday 30th September at a recognised crossing point on the busy road, in which a 13-year-old boy, believed to have been riding a mini-scooter, was in collision with a motorcyclist. The boy suffered serious head, abdomen, arm and leg injuries and was taken to Frenchay Hospital, where he remains in a critical but stable condition. The motorcyclist was also taken to hospital with a broken leg and a broken arm.
A similar accident in February this year, that occurred at an “informal crossing point” just 40m away from the site of the most recent incident, left a 10-year-old cyclist with life changing injuries after he was in collision with a car.
Both of the incidents occurred in the area where Bradley Stoke Way changes from dual to single carriageway, just north of the Willow Brook Centre.
Organised by a group of concerned parents and residents, the petition calls on the Council to install a new ‘raised table’ Toucan crossing, to replace the two drop kerb uncontrolled crossing points where the recent accidents have occurred. The group is also demanding that the dual carriageway stretch of Bradley Stoke Way to be converted to single lane traffic, the introduction of a 30mph speed limit and the installation of improved warning signage and over-speed indicators.
The petition, which has been running online since Monday 10th October, will be officially launched at the Willow Brook Centre at 12 noon on Saturday. Residents will be given the chance to sign up on the day and will also be able to take away a signature form to allow them to collect further signatures. [A signature form can also be download here]
Under SGC’s Petitions Scheme, if the petition is able to attract 2,500 signatures, the Council will be forced to debate the matter at a meeting of its Full Council.
Dave Baker, headteacher of Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS), the school attended by the 13-year-old injured in the most recent incident, has called for “an urgent review of speed limits and safety measures on and around Bradley Stoke Way” and questioned why no changes have been made after he and Jon Barr, headteacher of Meadowbrook Primary School, met with the Highways Department at South Gloucestershire Council in July.
When The Journal asked SGC for a response to the concerns raised by the two headteachers, we were provided with the following response:
“South Gloucestershire Council takes road safety extremely seriously and we are very concerned about the recent incidents on Bradley Stoke Way.”
“Following the serious injury accident involving a child in February this year, a representative of the council’s Transportation Services team met with the child’s parents and the headteachers of Meadowbrook Primary School and Bradley Stoke Community School to discuss their concerns and consider options to improve road safety at this location.”
“It was agreed that the council would implement a speed monitoring exercise on Bradley Stoke Way when schools returned from the summer break in order to better understand traffic speeds at this location. The speed monitoring exercise was underway at the time of the second accident and should be completed by Friday 14th October.”
“Since the accident on Bradley Stoke Way last week, the police have been asked to undertake mobile speed enforcement to help deter speeding at this location. We are also introducing additional road signs and markings, including speed activated signs, as a matter of urgency.
In response to the Council’s statement, the two headteachers told The Journal:
“We are pleased that South Gloucestershire Council have agreed to meet both schools next week to discuss what action can be prioritised to address our shared concerns about children’s safety and Bradley Stoke Way. The response of the community on the e-petition has reinforced our commitment to ensuring there are changes in the way people drive on that road.”
Accident statistics provided to the Bradley Stoke Journal by SGC show that there have been 29 personal injury accidents on the stretch of Bradley Stoke Way between Patchway Brook Roundabout and Webbs Wood Road Roundabout in the five year period up to 31st July 2011.
An initial analysis of the data shows that five of these accidents involved personal injury to young persons aged 17 or less crossing the dual carriageway section of the road near the Willow Brook Centre. All but one of the incidents occurred on the Toucan crossing opposite the Leisure Centre. Further analysis will be given in a future article in The Journal.
Statement from the Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council
Bradley Stoke councillors have held a meeting with the Council’s transport chief at the site of a recent accident in the town.
On 30th September, a 13 year old boy was involved in a road traffic accident on Bradley Stoke Way, close to the town’s Willow Brook centre.
Councillors representing the town’s three wards have this week met with Cllr Brian Allinson, the Council’s Executive Member for Transport, to discuss the community’s road safety concerns.
Cllr Sarah Pomfret (Con, Bradley Stoke Central & Stoke Lodge), Cllr Rob Jones (Con, Bradley Stoke South) and Cllr Ben Walker (Con, Bradley Stoke North) said:
“The residents we have heard from have strong views about road safety on Bradley Stoke Way and this was an opportunity for us to communicate these to the Council’s Executive Member for Transport and discuss how the police and council might address these concerns.”
“We are grateful to him for meeting us on site and we look forward to meeting residents at their forthcoming campaign launch and working with them going forward.”
L to R: Cllrs Sarah Pomfret, Ben Walker and Rob Jones with Cllr Brian Allinson on Bradley Stoke Way.
I take it the boy in question didn’t use the traffic light controlled crossing point provided for crossing that road safely?
If that is the case really the responsibility is on the pedestrian to cross safely by using the green cross code. If we as pedestrians can’t be trusted to do that then perhaps the next thing to do is put up railings to prevent crossing at any other point.
A message from the petition organisers
Anyone who has a paper petition to return can either call us on one of the following numbers or drop them in at one of these addresses that is most convenient to them:
Lynda Cordukes
Becky Mansyah
Helen Everett
[06/05/17] Editor’s note: Addresses and telephone numbers have now been deleted to protect privacy.
I agree entirely with reducing the speed limit to 30mph before the dual carriageway starts on this stretch of road.
That said, two light-controlled crossings in such close proximity (especially with a raised table) seems an excessive expense – in the region of £70k – when a much more sensible solution would be some railings to ensure people use the controlled crossing a short distance down the road. What it requires is a modicum of common sense.
Merely reducing the speed limit to 30mph without putting any other changes in place would achieve nothing as the traffic would still continue to speed down the long road. Currently traffic is regularly in excess of 40mph.
To respond to your view that the 2 light-controlled crossings would be too close to each other – is this the perspective you have from driving your car down this road? Or have you actually walked down this road and experienced as a pedestrian how far it is from the exit at the woods down to the pedestrian crossing outside the leisure centre.
I can tell you that it is approximately 250metres, meaning someone who wanted to cross from the nature reserve to Wheatfield would have to walk an extra half kilometre if they were to use the crossing, which to most pedestrians would add 10-15 minutes to a journey. I challenge you @ Bert to walk down this road and look at it for yourself from the point of view of an adult pedestrian. I did this the other day and was quite surprised at how far away the crossing is. I was there at 7pm in the evening on the Wheatfield side and it is impossible to even see there is a crossing further down.
In Stoke Gifford along Brierly Furlong there are 2 pedestrian crossings within 250 metres of each other and I haven’t noticed that they cause problems to traffic flow.
In response to the cost, it is very likely that if nothing is done a child will die on this road. 70K seems a small sum to pay to prevent this happening. The financial cost of the 2 serious accidents on this stretch of road this year I am sure well exceeds 70K and the emotional cost on the friends and family of these children is immeasurable.
We have to push the council to act quickly. We must ensure that drivers are made to behave responsibly on the roads and that pedestrians (especially young ones) are given proper, safe places to cross.
There is lots of emotion regarding this crossing following the recent accident and proposals demanding new crossings, chicanes, speed humps/tables, average speed limit cameras etc.
This is a main arterial route to the A38/M5 and tables aren’t feasible,you don’t want to be following an HGV that has to suddenly slow from 30/40mph down to 5mph. Similarly chicanes don’t work with such large vehicles. Average speed cameras don’t work either on such a short road that has a roundabout at either end.
I would prefer to wait for the official report as to what happened before demanding more lights as a solution. The existing leisure centre crossing is often misused with pedestrians (sometimes from the school) just stepping out without looking up the road or waiting for a green light, often engrossed in their phone or with iPod headphones in place. These people have a responsibility too David and no amount of money or cotton wool will prevent further accidents. Adults need set an example when crossing here and also educate their children as to the correct protocol.
If you were to do a survay regarding how many drivers have had to break and swerve to avoid people crossing this road with next to no regard for their own daffy and zero Common sense, what the results would be? I know for a fact I would not be alone.
While anyform of accident is horrible, and I would not wish anyone to get hurt in this mannor, I do question why everyone is always so quick to Blaim drivers. There is a light controlled crossing point right next to this accident point… why is this not used?
I have an idea, why don’t we restrict all traffic to walking pace, that way when someone decides they should have priority over vehicles on the road and crosses without any regard for there own daffy they have no chance of being hurt?
Petition launch at the Willow Brook Centre today (Saturday 15th):
More photos here on the Bradley Stoke Journal’s Facebook page.
Great news just in from the petition organisers. Take a look at our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BradleyStokeJournal
I wonder how many people signing the petition just read the headline – “Improve road safety measures” – of course everyone wants that. How many read the detail – 30mph along the entire Bradley Stoke way, raised table crossing. Why not just ban cars or go back to the days of people walking in front of them waving a flag.
@Dave P – I read the whole petition. I don’t agree with 30mph along the whole of Bradley Stoke Way as I believe this will encourage reckless overtaking of slower vehicles (HGVs in particular). However, I signed the petition anyway to ensure it was brought to the attention of the council. In hope that a public consultation will happen and the 30mph speed limit proposal will be dropped; BUT all other proposals will be carried forward!
@Dave, every single person who signed the petition today had the opportunity to read the full petition. Every single person who I asked to sign the petition I explained exactly what the petition was about and that we wanted a 30mph limit along the whole road. We collected over 2000 signatures in the space of a few hours today showing the amazing amount of support from local people for these changes. Many of the people I spoke to voiced the concerns they have had for a long time over the speed of traffic on Bradley Stoke Way.
And Dave driving 1 mile at 30 instead of 40 will increase your journey time by 30 seconds. Around 2 and half miles of BSW has a limit of 40 on it, therefore reducing this would increase your journey through the town by 90 seconds and that’s if you drive constantly at that speed without having to slow/stop at the lights/roundabouts/traffic queues along the way.
Reducing the speed limit on these roads which our town children use and cross will drastically reduce the chances of them being seriously injured on them.
Unfortunately the light controlled crossing point is also not always safe. I have on a couple of occassions had drivers jump the red light. My common sense in anticipating their actions due to their speed of approach has so far saved me!
On Friday morning I was travelling south in my car, on reaching the 30mph limit I slowed down, as soon as the dual carriageway was reached the car behind me overtook on the inside at speed then pulled back out to the right hand lane to turn right at the roundabout towards Tesco.
The irony was that this piece of very impatient and poor driving got him all of an extra car lengths in front as he had to stop at the crossing from the Three Brooks Pub to Meadowbrook School.
Pedestrians are also not always sensible.As I was heading north along Bradley Stoke Way at the end of the school day as I reached the light controlled crossing children from BSCS were waiting in a long line along the central reservation on both sides of the crossing ready to make a dash accross rather than wait for the lights to change.
I’m not sure a raised table is a feasible idea either but a reduced speed limit along this road and removal of the dual carriageway section certainly deserves consideration to help keep us all safer.
To “your average moterist” (sic) …….obviously your logic is as carefully thought out as your spelling! It is either a crossing point or it isn’t and i’m afraid it is, therefore people will cross there!
Unconfirmed reports that there has been another RTA on Bradley Stoke Way by the bridge at approximately 15:30 today. A child with bike was seen being comforted by adults on the grass verge near the pedestrian bridge, 3 cars were pulled up with hazards on.
The stats at the end of the article above are quite interesting, although it isn’t clear where all of the accidents took place (only 4 are located specifically). It also isn’t clear what the causes of the accidents were either. I look forward to the full article in the Journal in the future.
I notice that a couple of speed-sensitive warning signs have gone up on BSW, as well as warnings of a pedestrian crossing (I shan’t get into the arguments over whether it is or not). These seem like a smart move to me, although slapping up more road furniture can obviously lead to distraction if we’re not careful.
If people are concerned about traffic on BSW now, wait until its connected to the ring road and M32 , which is part of the bendy bus route via Great Stoke Way.
@Mike – seems a bit strange to sign a petition when you don’t agree with one of the major points. The assumption is that if you sign it you agree with it all. There is now the impression that over 2000 people think we should have a 30mph limit on all of BSW when that clearly isn’t the case.
@Bradley Stoke lady – the argument of how much extra time it would take completely misses the point. I have no problem with extending the current 30mph speed limit to just beyond Wheatfield Drive crossing point and even extending the island and joining it up with the others – that would make sense and probably improve safety. But our children should NOT be on the road at anything other than the crossing points – between the Wheatfield crossing and the Aldi crossing there is no reason for any of our children (or anyone else for that matter) to be anywhere near the road unless they’re in a vehicle. That goes for other long stretches of BSW. Making the whole road a 30mph limit would be completely ridiculous.
@Dave P:
A 30mph restriction along all of BSW is clearly not necessary and it won’t happen.
Highways engineers have got a lot of experience when it comes to fulfilling their role (which is balancing an expeditious road network with one that is as practicably safe for all users), and the guidelines for allocating speed limits have been developed over many years based on a lot of research. Clearly they might need tweaking if there is a reassesment of risk at a given location, which is why I agree that where there is a crossing of any type there needs to be a lower speed limit extending a few hundred yards either side, as should be the case here. That said, the vast majority of the length of BSW does not have crossing points, has no side-turnings and has wide grass verges. As an arterial road with few interactions, the guidelines will rightly suggest 40mph as striking the correct balance.
Two accidents at one place on BSW does not suddenly change the risk across its whole length. It’s akin to saying the tight bend on the M5 near Birmingham means it should be 50mph along its length.
I generally agree with Bert, in that a 30mph shouldn’t be necessary where a road has no junctions, wide verges and no crossing points. I do note however that the stretch of BSW between the Leisure Centre roundabout and Webbs Wood roundabout has a crossing point near the bus stop at the bridge over the nature reserve.
Have a look on google maps, it is clearly a designated crossing point and is also a designated access point to the Three Brooks Nature Reserve. The cheapest and most sensible solution to prevent collisions at this point, is to remove any encouragement to cross the road i.e. lift the pavement and seal off the access to the Nature Reserve.
Press release from Jack Lopresti MP
Jack Lopresti MP has given his support to a campaign to increase road safety on Bradley Stoke Way.
The MP met with concerned residents, led by Becky Mansyah one of the mums living near Bradley Stoke Way, last Saturday at the Willow Brook centre in Bradley stoke following several incidents this year. The most recent was on September 30th 2011, when a local 13 year old boy, was seriously injured after being hit by a motorbike on the road.
Local residents are calling on South Gloucestershire Council to improve road safety on Bradley Stoke Way by introducing a light-controlled pedestrian crossing, cutting the 40mph speed limit, placing warning signs, and removing a stretch of dual carriageway to prevent dangerous overtaking
Jack said:
“I have asked the Roads Minister, Mike Penning, to see if there is anything the Government can do to assist the local authority. I have also spoken to the local police who have told me that they would be supportive of several measures at that location from reduced speed limit to lane closures. The police also mentioned that Community Speedwatch have been active in the area and have given some feedback. In fact the police recruited five more members for Speedwatch at the petition signing last Saturday at the Willow Brook Centre.”
“I know that Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire’s executive councillor for transport, has already met with Bradley Stoke Councillors and is looking at the issue closely. Brian is working hard with all interested parties to establish a consensus of opinion and I have no doubt that appropriate action will be taken.”
The Community Speedwatch volunteers were out this week around the end of the school day but interestingly were at the Aldi end of the road rather than in the vincinity of the recent accident.
The e-petition has now closed, having attracted 1,006 signatures.
The Bradley Stoke Safer and Stronger Community Group meeting on 1st November was told that a total of around 3,600 signatures have been collected (this includes signatures on paper).
South Gloucestershire Council must now debate the matter at a Full Council meeting (the next is on Wednesday 14th December 2011).