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are in: Lincolnshire » Have Your Say |
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Lincolnshire
roads - death-trap debate
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Twenty people have lost their lives on Lincolnshire's roads in the first
seven weeks of this year.
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It's
not just during the recent bad weather that accidents happened
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What advice
do you have for those driving on the roads? What can be done to reduce a
dramatically increasing road toll?
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| perhaps
we could introduce a roadside drug test for drivers who are
under the influence of drugs as well as drink. i live in a high
risk area from drug users, and am appalled at their driving,
they go so fast and i am sure that if they had to stp for a
child, they would never be able to stop in time. |
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Elaine from Boston
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| I
am sure we all think we are good drivers and that it's always
the other guy, but just a few simple points may help us all
to get it right. Do drivers realise the chevrons in the middle
of the road are for protecting vehicles waiting to turn right
and not for overtaking, do they realise that if they are in
a speed limit it doesn't mean they have to sit on my tail trying
to intimidate me to break the limit. Oh, and another thing when
on a roundabout obviously they will be exiting to the left at
some point but some left hand indicators go on as soon as they
enter the roundabout - they know where they are going and expect
the rest of us to know also. If people drive without thought
for there own safety they are not likely to think of anyone
elses. |
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Shirlet from Spalding
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| Since
moving to Lincolnshire 2.1/2 years ago we have been amazed and
shocked at the standard of driving we see, it would appear that
drivers do not know the white line in the middle of the road
designates on which side they should be driving and they think
they should drive with speed on the wrong side of the road around
the many bends which are a part of the road network here. god
knows what would happen if they had to use the M25 or M23. |
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Jane Walters from Mablethorpe
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| I
think that people should take more caution, on our roads, as
there are a lots of twists and turns that are not properly explained.
and also they must slow down. |
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M L Denney from Aby Near Alford
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| It's
not just Lincolnshire - Somerset (levels) is just as bad for
similar reasons - long straight roads - people who drive too
fast and too close together. Dual carriageways can be just as
bad - people just drive faster and still too close together.
We see this all the time on the A303. The most dangerous part
of a car still remains the nut behind the steering wheel. |
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Russ
B from Baltonsborough
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| car
stickers, slow downs , speed kills [ no one will look at them.]
if they do then another accident will happen. you need 5ft or
more poster boards on the side of the roods one glance and you
see then. hit hard hit home.lincolnshire has bad roads speed
should be 50 or below. respect lincs respect our roads .stay
alive and come again. people from lincs should know better than
to speed but do we learn NO do they learn NO. its all ages the
ones that must get there YESTERDAY, when they could leave an
hour before and get there. STAY ALIVE HAPPY DRIVEING TO ALL.
it is not london its little LINCOLNSHIRE |
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Julia
from Horncastle
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| I
have lived in Lincolnshire since 1973 when I came here as a
police officer;I spent several years on traffic patrol and at
that time there was far less traffic but more officers engaged
on enforcement !!! You cannot beat high visibility patrols and
rigorous enforcement but the current hierarchy and gov't will
tell you that the resources are not available due to lack of
funds WHAT PRICE DO WE HAVE TO PAY ?? |
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Martin
Hinchliffe from Boston
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| Given
the number of thoughtless drivers on the county's roads, I am
surprised the toll is not higher. Frequently, I get overtaken
within a posted limit by drivers who have decided they are beyond
the law. Fifty in a thirty zone by an Audi, and often without
the use of indicators or the slightest consideration for other
road users. I do not have a car with a crystal ball to decide
when the car behind wants to overtake, or the one in front is
going to move to the right. These manouevres can cause accidents,
leaving some poor innocent motorist in a state of shock while
the perpertrator is completely oblivious to the havoc in his
wake. He probably thinks he is a good driver! We keep reading
that speed kills, but more often than not it is the sudden standing
on the brakes when another vehicle wants to join a stream of
traffic, or decides that, having sat at the junction for all
of 45 seconds, the gap between the bus and the car following
it is sufficient for his needs. Never mind the fact he's unable
to see the small family car between those two. He crawls out
into the major road at twenty miles an hour, and expects every
other road user to come down to his speed. I was taught to make
progress, and that meant not impeding the cars in the traffic
I wish to join. |
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lady driver from wragby
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| I
have to agree with all previous comments, driver attitude and
speeding are the cause of accidents, not the size or the shape
of roads, drivers need to be re-educated in safer driving techniques
and patience,the other way is to govern the speed on all motor
vehicles. |
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Stephen Eaton from Scunthorpe
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| I
would say that the roads in Lincolnshire are some of the safest
to drive on. I lived in Boston for 7 years and to me its always
a pleasure to drive on roads as well tended and open as these.
If there is a problem, its down to driver complacency and lack
of care and attention. I know of one person who regularly drives
above the speed limit down roads with dykes on both sides 'just
for the thrill of it' and usually after having a drink or two.
Last year my mother was involved in an accident where a 90 year
old man on walking sticks, deaf and partially sighted drove
on the wrong side of the road and hit her vehicle on the passenger
side. Not content with that, he tried to keep going, pushing
her car out onto the wrong side of the road, doing thousands
of pounds worth of damage and rendering her unable to work for
the past year.Although he was removed from driving he wasnt
prosecuted by the police. It isnt the roads that are dangerous,
after all thats what we go to driving schools for, its the drivers. |
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Cheryl
Collins-King from Uckfield, East Sussex
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| I
agree with an awful lot that is said about the quality of driving
in Lincolnshire, the roads are not brilliant but any driver
worth his/her salt will drive according to the prevailing conditions.
Driving in Lincoln varies from pretty terrible to fair but we
have an awful lot who are extremely arrogant and must believe
in a points system for taking out pedestrians, at times you
can't believe your eyes. My main beef with the Lincolnshire
road system is the lack of direct roads through the county,
so I can understand the frustration of some drivers when they
want to move quickly, but cannot because of the bending roads
and the volume of rural traffic we have in Lincolnshire. People's
expectations are greater now than they ever were, so many people
feel that there should be a decent system of roads in place,
but at the end of the day we still have to drive safely, otherwise
the accident toll will continue to increase - take care! |
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Ken
- Metheringham
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| Having
spent the greater majority of my working life as a Traffic Police
Officer I was apalled by the standard of driving that I witnessed
when I moved to the County two years ago. I agree whole heartedly
with the greater majority of your contributors, roads do not
kill, drivers kill. However the authorities must do more to
enforce the traffic laws, especially those relating to speeding
and the manner of driving. I ask the local councils and the
county council to do more to slow down the traffic in our villages.
Look what our neighbours Nottinghamshire and Norfolk have done
in there villages. Come on Lincolnshire make an effort catch
up. |
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Dave
P from Sleaford
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| Perhaps
if Lincolnshire drivers kept their eyes on the road instead
of driving in the middle of the road admiring the crops growing
in the fields the accident rate would be reduced. Also there
is nothing more annoying than 3 or 4 locals travelling at 35-40mph
along the road from Crowland to Boston, travelling too close
together and not dreaming of overtaking or leaving a gap in
order that other motorists may get on with their journey. I
think some training on the use of mirrors would also be a good
thing, they are not for admiring yourself but as an aid to driving. |
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Brian
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| our
roads are a disgrace, elsewhere in the UK you find dual carriageways'Lincolnshire
seem content to shut theirs. We are burdened with tractors which
dont pull over causing people to over take at bad times in frustration,
our towns road planners must obviously fly everywhere as our
towns seem to be a holding place for cones and cues, bad driving
is also to blame but not to blame alone. |
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Rob
from Leverton
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| The
expanse of open flat farmland and fenland seems to bring out
the worst in people. Having lived in Scotland where you can't
see around the next bend it is very frightening to drive where
people will not stay behind you whilst driving for more than
a few seconds!! I have had some very threatening behaviour from
drivers. Aggression and antagonism seem par for the course.
Speed control signs are obviously put there to be ignored,as
are hatched areas of road - an open invitation to cross over
them and double white lines - what are they for? |
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Eric
from Lincolnshire
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| Why
dosnt someone produce a "drive carefully in Lincolnshire" car
sticker (or words to that effect). |
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Simon
from Washingborough
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| I
have given first aid at two death crashes in seven weeks,lives
lost because of speed on our terrible Lincolnshire roads. Why
does our council still plant trees,poles and install objects
at corners for our crazy drivers to smash into?. Also our Police
never try and sort the slow drivers out,yes the lot that do
38mph on a 60mph road. They make the crazy drivers overtake
them in the wrong places. Head on crashes are not nice,Ive lost
sleep for nights after seeing them, so Lincolnshire Police just
do something please. Targeting the fast drivers on there own
is not working is it. |
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Paul
from Spilsby
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| SPEEDING,CARELESSNESS,LACK
OF CONSIDERATION? YOU CAN USE ALL THE EXCUSES YOU LIKE BUT,
AT THE END OF THE DAY IT,S DOWN TO DRIVER ATTITUDE AND LACK
OF POLICING. I WOULD GLADLY VOLUNTEER TO HAVE A VIDEO CAM INSTALLED
IN MY CAR AND SEND THE TAPES WEEKLY TO THE LINCS POLICE. THEY
COULD THEN SEE THE IDIOTS WHO RISK MY LIFE EVERY MORNING ON
THE A15 LINCOLN TO SLEAFORD. CAMERAS DO NOT WORK - THEY MERELY
MAKE YOU OBEY THE SPEED RESTRICTION OVER A 50 METRE STRETCH.
IF THEY ARE PLACED WHERE THERE IS A HIGH RISK, WHY IS THERE
NOT A CAMERA AT THE JUNCTION OF THE A607 AND THE HARMSTON TURN
OFF, THE SECOND BIGGEST BLACKSPOT IN THE COUNTY? |
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Phil
from Bracebridge Heath
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| We
are relatively newcomers to Lincolnshire (5 years) but it was
only a few days before we noticed the aggressive style of driving
here. My theory and it can only be a theory, is that the Lincolnshire
roads are, in the main, long and straight and for many years
have been comparatively empty. Drivers have not been used to
travelling behind anyone else and are not now prepared to do
so. We were most alarmed when we noticed that the the drivers
who insist on overtaking, no matter how dangerous the conditions,
even though we are travelling at a reasonable speed, tended
to be in the upper age bracket (45 plus) and therefore were
passing this style of driving on to their children and grandchildren.
There is also a tendency for the local population to never be
wrong (sorry does not exist in their vocabulary) and this attitude
combined with the aggression behind the wheel produces the lethal
combination that we have in Lincolnshire. We don't have little
shunts here. We only se! em! to have fatalities or serious injuries.
I wish I knew what the solution is but the blame should not
be placed on the young or the newcomers. Most of the newcomers
are used to sharing their roadspace with others. The locals
don't yet know how! |
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Mary
from Hemswell
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| why
dont the road safety partnership have meetings with the general
public to listen to their views on what can be done about the
deaths and accidents on lincolnshire roads meetings could be
held in village halls once a month or quarter i am sure some
constructive views would come out of it .it would also bridge
the gap between them and us as clearly their is one so dont
lets kid ourselves |
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Graham
from Lincoln
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| i
retired to the boston area 3yrs ago from essex where all rds
are congested day and night!! i love it here and travelling
all over england as a h.g.v i find the roads here very easy
to travel on with little or no traffic most of the time the
trouble is they are straight with long stretches and tend to
encourage people to go faster than they need to go i find 50-60mph
quite fast enough to get to my destination in a fraction of
the time it takes down south ps i find people here very friendly
here and i am very glad to have moved here |
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Mr L Dunn from Swineshead
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| Why
does Lincolnshire such a high proportion of bad drivers? It
must be so if bad roads are not to blame. If you live in Hertfordshire
you are not a bad driver but if you move to Lincolshire then
you become one!. Letus all move out of Lincolshire and become
good drivers and leave the roads of Lincolnshire to be taken
over by the good drivers from elsewhere. Can not be anything
to do with different qualities of roads? No way. Harry T. |
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Harry Thorpe from Sleaford
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| Enough
has been said about the crazy drivers on lincolnshire roads
- young and old alike. Maybe its time for radio lincolnshire
to take a lead in the matter of the deaths. At the very least
have a car sticker campaign or something of the sort with a
message along the lines of "slow down" or "slow down or die"
that sort of thing. |
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Steve from Kirton Holme
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| I
was completely disgusted by the comments of an East Lincs coroner.
He is obviously out of touch and does not have any liasion with
Lincs Traffic Police. While there are not enough dual carriageways,
there is no excuse for drivers not driving responsibly according
to road conditions. Roads themselves do not kill, it is drivers
in cars who kill and the main reasons are: a. Driving too fast.
b. Overtaking where they do not have the requisite space to
do so and c. Lack of patience. This coroner ought to ask himself
how many accidents are caused by 1. Mechanical failure. 2. Bad
road conditions 3. Driver error. and he will find that cause
3 is responsible for over 95% of Lincs road deaths. Although
originating from Lincoln, I only moved back here 10 years ago
and was immediately apalled by the abysmal standard of driving.
Previously I had to drive on the M4, M40 and M25 every weekday,
during rush hours, and there was an extremely high degree of
competence in road discipline, which is completely lacking in
Lincs. I am sure that drivers passing their test in Lincs are
not asked to use their indicators and are colour blind as they
do not seem to be able to differentiate between red, amber and
green. |
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Robert Marshall
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| What
is it about drivers in lincolnshire! New to the county, I am
appalled with the amount of stupid and reckless drivers who
drive around roads like they're on a roadtrack and put other
people's lives at risk. For god sake slow down and if you want
to risk your life, do just that, risk your life NOT MINE!!!!! |
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Tracie Charles-Mclean from Bicker
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