Calls for action at blackspot junction at Boots Bridge/Sixteen Foot Manea
A spate of crashes at a rural road junction has prompted calls for safety improvements at the site, including better signage.
There have been at least six accidents in less than two months at the Boots Bridge junction on the Manea Road at the Sixteen Foot crossing.
Each crash has led to emergency services attending and dozens of posts on social media questioning the safety of the junction.
Now Coun John Gowing, the local Cambridgeshire County Council member, is calling for a meeting with the highways safety officer to look at what can be done to make the road safer for users.
He said: “Planned work to improve the bridge has been delayed until the autumn following intervention by the Middle Level Commissioners, but once it does get underway then there is an opportunity to do something to improve safety. It makes sense to do it when workmen are already on site and I will be organising a meeting as soon as possible to discuss what can be done to make the junction safer.”
One of the most recent crashes happened on July 26 and prompted the driver of one of the cars involved to post a warning on Facebook with a picture of her overturned car.
She wrote: “This is a picture of the car which was T-boned at Boots Bridge on Thursday evening. It’s okay, I’m not a Facebook ghoul, I’m posting this because it was my car, just with the message, please SLOW DOWN everyone.”
Luckily her and her family were unhurt in the incident, but her message is echoed by Christine and Graham Baxter, who live on the corner of the junction and are usually the first on the scene.
Christine, who has started keeping a log to help with the campaign for safety improvements, said: “Every time we hear a bang I think ‘oh my God’. It’s scary because you never know what you’re going to find. I make so many calls about crashes at the junction that the woman who answers the police phone line knows me by name.
“There have been at least six accidents since the middle of June – I don’t know why there have been so many in such a short space of time. But I can say that people don’t always stop at the junction, they just come flying over.
“There is a question about the signs. There is a ‘Give Way’ sign and people think there should be a ‘Stop’ one instead. There is also some confusion about the placement of a 50mph sign.
“We have been here since 2009 and I have lost count of the number accidents. The bang sends a shudder down my spine and it is awful for Graham as he was involved in a serious accident in November 2009 and he is in a wheelchair and had to have his leg amputated, and it brings it all back for him.
“I kept a log for a while after we first moved in at the request of one of the Wimblington parish councillors, but it was never taken any further. But John Gowing has asked me to keep a log again to help with collating information towards getting safety improvements.
“The bridge is going to have some work done on it shortly and hopefully that will help the situation. But in the meantime people need to realise it is a junction and they need to stop. Cars travelling along the Sixteen Foot are often going much faster than the 50mph limit and it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even killed if people don’t take care at the junction.”
