are Warwickshire Council negligent...

[buggi]

When you write to the council - and well done for doing so - who not mention that given their past unresponsiveness and your strong conviction that every moment's delay represents a very real risk to people's lives, if they don't get back to you with a reasonable response within, say, a week, you will send a copy of the letter and a brief summary of the background, to the makers of Top Gear. And if they don't, do.

They're always on the lookout for good 'issues' to cover, and may well be interested in doing a feature on who exactly is responsible for taking appropriate measures to safeguard people using the roads. I doubt anyone at the council would be keen to even risk being flagged up on national tv as having ignored repeated warnings and five accidents, one fatal, and failed to provide a safe environment for the public at large.

wow.. That would be a new angle for Top Gear... Cyclist sticking up for drivers

 

[asterix]

We may not have potholes here but there are some fabulous bends. Not one has a chevron or any form of warning at all. The trick is to slow down before a bend so that you do not go round it too fast.

Can remember some years ago thinking that in the UK drivers are given an amazing amount of help to drive as fast as possible on country roads whereas French drivers are not. Maybe if the UK authorities spend less on shiny aluminium signs they could fill the potholes in!

Have often thought in the UK when someone is taking a bend at max speed: what would they do if they encountered a hazard, a cyclist for an example?

 

[snorri]

For me this thread highlights the craziness of havng a 60mph NSL on much of our rural road network, where any fule can see 60mph is recklessly fast, and then spending a load of money on signs warning of "hazards" which could safely be negotiated at lower speeds.
On this particular issue I support the endeavours of buggi, it's just not nice seeing people injured or worse in your own locality.

 

[swee'pea99]

We may not have potholes here but there are some fabulous bends. Not one has a chevron or any form of warning at all.

To me this highlights one of the key aspects of this particular episode. If we had no warnings of such hazards, people would drive differently. But we do. So we drive accordingly, in the knowledge that we'll be warned of upcoming hazards. Failing to warn people, given that that is the basic system over here, is negligent. The very fact that the council puts chevrons on the bend is implicit recognition that the nature of the bend demands them. To then put them in such a position that they're unfit for purpose - ie, that they're invisible until far too late to serve their function - is incompetent at best. To refuse to shift them despite repeated accidents and protests from the public must in my view come close to criminal negligence.

 

[asterix]

To me this highlights one of the key aspects of this particular episode. If we had no warnings of such hazards, people would drive differently. But we do. So we drive accordingly, in the knowledge that we'll be warned of upcoming hazards. Failing to warn people, given that that is the basic system over here, is negligent. The very fact that the council puts chevrons on the bend is implicit recognition that the nature of the bend demands them. To then put them in such a position that they're unfit for purpose - ie, that they're invisible until far too late to serve their function - is incompetent at best. To refuse to shift them despite repeated accidents and protests from the public must in my view come close to criminal negligence.

Agree. If you expect a warning and suddenly it is not there then it probably is.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

For me this thread highlights the craziness of havng a 60mph NSL on much of our rural road network, where any fule can see 60mph is recklessly fast, and then spending a load of money on signs warning of "hazards" which could safely be negotiated at lower speeds.
On this particular issue I support the endeavours of buggi, it's just not nice seeing people injured or worse in your own locality.

having a 60 limit is definetly crazy on a lot of the smaller lanes, having been riding the lanes round Coventry, including the ones round by Buggi, for over 30 years I know a lot of them well, recently I've started driving again and I've driven some of them, for some of them 30 is too fast.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Can any of the 'residents of the ditch' hand on heart say, "I drove my vehicle at a speed in which I could stop it safely in the distance I could see to be clear in front of me?"

Now, is it toffee flavour or lightly salted.......

 

[buggi]

To me this highlights one of the key aspects of this particular episode. If we had no warnings of such hazards, people would drive differently. But we do. So we drive accordingly, in the knowledge that we'll be warned of upcoming hazards. Failing to warn people, given that that is the basic system over here, is negligent. The very fact that the council puts chevrons on the bend is implicit recognition that the nature of the bend demands them. To then put them in such a position that they're unfit for purpose - ie, that they're invisible until far too late to serve their function - is incompetent at best. To refuse to shift them despite repeated accidents and protests from the public must in my view come close to criminal negligence.

exactly what i think... Either it warrants it it or it doesn't... And if it does, to put them in a place they can't be seen is negligent.
don't get me wrong, i know what everyone is saying about drivers driving to the speed of the road conditions (in fact i gave a talk about it at work the other day which resulted in so many drivers telling my boss it changed their attitude that it my boss gave me £25 vouchers) but the bottom line is... This is real life...we all fk up sometimes and if we can prevent someone seriously injuring themselves then we should not take half measures. If you see the link to the map i put above then i think you can at least understand why a 1.5 mile straight road with a 60mph that turns into a 90 degree bend warrants a warning... And one that gives you time to react, otherwise what is the point?

 

[buggi]

Can any of the 'residents of the ditch' hand on heart say, "I drove my vehicle at a speed in which I could stop it safely in the distance I could see to be clear in front of me?"

Now, is it toffee flavour or lightly salted.......

definitely not i would say but the speed limit is ridiculously high. my neighbour told me the villagers have been asking for years to have it lowered. Even moving the villages 30 mph sign 200 yards down the road might help !

 

[buggi]

so... The council have still not been to fix the sign. I've since propped it up at least 3 times and, as no incidents, seemed to be doing its job (well it would do coz its in a much better place). Tonight i came home to find someone waiting for AA coz they'd gone in the ditch. He was ok. Asked him if the chevron sign was up. He said no. ( guess is it blew down in the wind yesterday). Then he told me a villager had already stopped to pull him out and told him he was the 2ND PERSON tonight!!!
what is it going to take before the council do something? Someone dying? Or perhaps a compo claim... I told the driver I have complained on more than one occasion that the sign was down and gave him the name of the person at the council he should complain to.

 

[ColinJ]

It is hard to understand why it is so difficult to get these obviously dangerous things sorted out. Keep up the pressure, buggi!

There was a dangerous junction where a minor road came out onto the main road down into Hebden Bridge from the direction of Keighley. It has blind bends on both sides. The local council said that traffic lights were not needed because the junction did not have a bad enough accident record. That implied that they were waiting for a number of people to be killed or maimed before they would do anything about it. In the end, enough local pressure was put on the council that they relented and installed lights.

Wasn't the danger of this junction obvious enough? If you were turning right, you had to get across the road before anything coming round the bend on the right got to you, at the same time hoping that someone was not going to come flying round the other bend from the left.

 

[buggi]

SUCCESS !!! finally the old chevrons have been out back up AND some new ones on the other side of the corner where they used to be which you can now see on approach. They must have done it today.

 

[snorri]

Well done Buggi.

 

[swee'pea99]

And people say councils drag their feet.

 

[buggi]

i think telling the last crash victim to contact council for some compensation, bcoz they knew the signs were down for some weeks, helped a lot.