A34 - Improve this road NOW !

[andrewwoods]

But the lorry crashed into the back of a stationary queue of traffic. Why was the traffic ahead stopped? If the road was perfect then there wouldn't have been a queue for the distracted driver to hit.

[Gav]

Exactly my thoughts - the road had an issue and these issues are a regular occurance, Yes I know a vehicle running into another vehicle is avoidable, but so are the many incidents that occur on this road.

It needs to be upgraded, to a D2M at the very least, or if they dont want a motorway then even an AP but with shoulders to allow traffic to get off of the mainline.

[doebag]

But the lorry crashed into the back of a stationary queue of traffic. Why was the traffic ahead stopped? If the road was perfect then there wouldn't have been a queue for the distracted driver to hit.

Or a poor standard of driving. People in lane two expecting to do 70mph while looking no further than the end of their bonnet, looking down at their car radio or their mobile phone. HGV pulls in to lane two to overtake, numpty car driver has to brake hard, all following cars brake harder and harder until tail end charlie is stationary. Car then swerves in to lane one to avoid tail end charlie, causing HGV in lane one to brake hard, further heavy braking in lane one leads to both lanes now stationary. caused by no fault in the road, but with the standard of driving.

[Fenlander]

I've long thought that one of the issues is that from a distance, especially with a bit of poor visibility thrown in, it's not easy to differentiate between brake lights on a car doing 70 that's gently slowing and one that's in a full on emergency stop and almost, if not, stationary. Combine that with shorter than ideal gaps between vehicles and as previously mentioned you can quickly cause an otherwise free running road to come to a standstill.

[Gav]

yes the road isnt at fault, its the people on it.... were human.

short slip roads minimal merge poor sight lines steep grades, throw it together and you have the A34. I thought we were up for identifying and improving the road network, thought we were aiming to proactively reduce road accidents by taking out high risk features. We can all stand and say its poor drivers, its not the roads fault.

Tight slip road hill and lorry pulls out to lane one, other cars avoid pulling from lane 1 to 2. foreign lorry pulls out and doesnt fully see the car beside him. blind spot etc what ever you want to call it, but the reality is that you have blood spilled. speed differentials due to hills etc ? yes its not the roads fault, but it wasnt designed for the levels of traffic it carries, and it was a piecemeal upgrade.

D2M please or at least decent realignment and remove sub standard slip roads. its not rocket science. We have the knowledge and ability to resolve these issues and make the road safer.

[Bryn666]

I would love to know how a D2M would prevent another lorry driver from reading his mobile phone for a whole minute whilst travelling at 55 mph.

This fatality was not caused by the road. It was caused by a dangerous driver failing to drive with full care and attention. Demanding an upgrade to the entire route because of this is akin to demanding that we reconfigure the National Grid because someone climbed up a pylon and got blown to bits by the electric.

There are far worse lengths of road that need attention before the A34, and I am someone is wholly in favour of major improvement to the network. I'm sure if you reviewed the full STATS 19 data for the A34 it would still be far safer than surrounding local roads in terms of vehicle volumes to collision ratios.

[Arcuarius]

yes the road isnt at fault, its the people on it.... were human.

short slip roads minimal merge poor sight lines steep grades, throw it together and you have the A34. I thought we were up for identifying and improving the road network, thought we were aiming to proactively reduce road accidents by taking out high risk features. We can all stand and say its poor drivers, its not the roads fault.

Tight slip road hill and lorry pulls out to lane one, other cars avoid pulling from lane 1 to 2. foreign lorry pulls out and doesnt fully see the car beside him. blind spot etc what ever you want to call it, but the reality is that you have blood spilled. speed differentials due to hills etc ? yes its not the roads fault, but it wasnt designed for the levels of traffic it carries, and it was a piecemeal upgrade.

D2M please or at least decent realignment and remove sub standard slip roads. its not rocket science. We have the knowledge and ability to resolve these issues and make the road safer.

Go on then, I'll bite. How do you suggest an extra lane width each way for no extra capacity will help Mr. Lorry Driver break his texting habits?

[andrewwoods]

<pedantic> He wasn't texting - he was selecting music from his phone / iPod </pedantic>

[andrewwoods]

Just because THIS incident was made tragic by the driver, doesn't mean that the road doesn't need updating to address all the other issues and incidents.

[Johnathan404]

It needs to be upgraded, to a D2M at the very least, or if they dont want a motorway then even an AP but with shoulders to allow traffic to get off of the mainline.

What good would a hard shoulder have done?

All accidents are caused by a combination of poor road layout, excessive speed and poor driving. If your hobby-horse is speed, you can argue "if they were going slower they'd have avoided each other" until you're blue in the face. If your issue is poor driving, you can argue the vehicles involved should have avoided each other. If you have an issue with the road layout, you can blame that on any cause of conflict.

The truth is the importance of these three factors varies significantly. Jumping on to your chosen bandwagon and any slight opportunity is not at all helpful.

[J6onM27]

The incident was caused by irresponsible action of the driver however there is no doubt that this part of A34 has some significant gradients. I often see tractors running on this stretch bringing traffic to a halt!

If you were re-designing it today you would convert one of carriageways for S2 local traffic from Chilton to East Isley then south of this village to Beedon. The A34 then could be re-aligned to reduce gradient and also there would be no need for junctions between Chieveley and Chilton. This provides a full off line route for our agriculture workers, local people and for those like me who would like a slower/touristy approach at times when travelling.

I would also have a separate S2 local road for Beacon Hill to Litchfield and Tufton to Bullington Cross.

The A34 from Didcot needs to be re-aligned south of Oxford to join M40 giving us an excellent North/South route to/from the South coast ports. The old A34 would then serve Didcot to Oxford as distributor road then act as a Western ring road through Botley.

[Gav]

Go on then, I'll bite. How do you suggest an extra lane width each way for no extra capacity will help Mr. Lorry Driver break his texting habits?

Okay.... Say lorry driver is texting on his phone and there was no slow/stopped traffic in front of him.... he looks down then back up and traffic is still moving... yes he was stupid and he was in the wrong, he took his eyes off of the road on what he thought was a fast moving road with traffic moving not expecting the traffic to grind to a halt.

If you reduce the number of instigators on a route that result in pinch points then you start to reduce the snarl ups. yes I know whats being said this individual would have been better off watching out his windscreen than his phone screen.

[Norfolktolancashire]

Just because THIS incident was made tragic by the driver, doesn't mean that the road doesn't need updating to address all the other issues and incidents.

I will always say that millions of drivers go through this part of the A34 without hitting other vehicles, I agree this stretch would ideally be upgraded to omit any local traffic joining, but this would not stop traffic queuing say for a burst tyre, or an electrical engine failure. Until all vehicles have fail-safe collision avoiding programs there will always be the potential for collisions. That said, it doesn't take away driver responsibility while driving at 30mph or 70+.

[KeithW]

But the lorry crashed into the back of a stationary queue of traffic. Why was the traffic ahead stopped? If the road was perfect then there wouldn't have been a queue for the distracted driver to hit.

There is no such thing as a perfect road unless you have one road per vehicle and even then people would manage to crash. All it takes is a breakdown or unexpected levels of traffic to cause a queue. Drivers should always be prepared to stop and drive within those limits. On rural roads I have had to brake hard to avoid wildlife such as deer on the highway.

[jedikiah]

I recall a statement that the accident record in this vicinity used to be over double the average rate for D2 roads with similar vehicle usage. Not sure if that is still the case but somehow it seems quite likely.

[JonH]

But the lorry crashed into the back of a stationary queue of traffic. Why was the traffic ahead stopped? If the road was perfect then there wouldn't have been a queue for the distracted driver to hit.

Wasn't there a broken down vehicle further ahead?

Regarding the distance left between you and the vehicle in front, how much distance do YOU need to leave to avoid a lorry driver scrolling through his iPod slamming your car under the vehicle in front? And how long do you anticipate such a space remaining empty?

[kit]

I recall a statement that the accident record in this vicinity used to be over double the average rate for D2 roads with similar vehicle usage. Not sure if that is still the case but somehow it seems quite likely.

Actually I think if you look at it in terms of accidents versus vehicles per day it's actually not too bad.

However, I think it's a bit of a mistake to see this as a reason not to improve it. Logically improvements to a road like the A34 with 60k vpd will result in a much bigger reduction in overall killed or seriously injured people than a more dangerous road with 6k vpd.

After all we know motorways are the safest category of road but there are not campaigns to cut back on motorway standards so that the Bxxxx through Little Soddington can be upgraded.

[andrewwoods]

According to the Oxford Mail
Safety measures revealed for 'most dangerous stretch

LAYBYS, chevrons and better signage are some of the safety measures being discussed for the A34.
After a review was carried out by Highways England, MPs and campaigners have come together to discuss immediate solutions.

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey said there will be a concentrated effort to install safety measures along that part of the route.
He said: “The themes for us going forward are safety measures like chevrons and better signage because sometimes people can break[sic] suddenly and turn off because they have not seen the signs properly.
“I think the most important part that we discussed was introducing laybys.”

Mr Vaizey said a meeting was scheduled with the Minister of Transport to discuss a traffic management system.
He added: “It was very important for us to look at the safety review to see if it would hold up existing plans for a traffic management system which we hope to be approved next year.”

[KeithW]

LAYBYS, chevrons and better signage are some of the safety measures being discussed for the A34.
After a review was carried out by Highways England, MPs and campaigners have come together to discuss immediate solutions.

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey said there will be a concentrated effort to install safety measures along that part of the route.
He said: “The themes for us going forward are safety measures like chevrons and better signage because sometimes people can break[sic] suddenly and turn off because they have not seen the signs properly.
“I think the most important part that we discussed was introducing laybys.”

Mr Vaizey said a meeting was scheduled with the Minister of Transport to discuss a traffic management system.
He added: “It was very important for us to look at the safety review to see if it would hold up existing plans for a traffic management system which we hope to be approved next year.”

Interesting, on the A14 near Cambridge they CLOSED laybys in the interest of safety. They seemed to believe there was risk of car drivers running into the back of slow moving lorries that had pulled out of a layby.

http://www.huntspost.co.uk/hunts-life/a ... s_1_654784

[roadtester]

There is one layby on the eastbound side fairly close to Cambridge that was closed but this happened almost as soon as it was opened because it proved to be dangerously unusable thanks to the ridiculously short space available for acceleration when rejoining the carriageway (it's still there but I think signed for emergency use only).

Really, only an electric car would have the shove to exit safely.

That would have been around 2000. I remember everyone saying "why are they building that layby? It's layout looks too dangerous."