Question:
There have been six collisions at the Wokingham town centre junction of Rectory Road and Wiltshire Road in recent years, where cars have come off the road, crossed the pavement at speed, and crashed into the railings outside the apartments on this junction. Three of these collisions occurred in the last seven months, and two in the last two months, causing considerable damage and concern.
There are many older residents in this area, some of whom are scared to walk on the pavements outside their own front doors due to the speed of traffic and the frequency of collisions at this site. In the most recent example, residents were walking along the pavement just moments before the incident. Residents are rightly concerned for pedestrian safety and fear a serious accident, causing personal injury, will occur.
A resident petition for safety measures at this junction was presented to the Council over a year ago. What measures is the Council taking to ensure safety at this junction, in particular for the many pedestrians in this area?
Minutes:
Question:
There have been six collisions at the Wokingham town centre junction of Rectory Road and Wiltshire Road in recent years, where cars have come off the road, crossed the pavement at speed, and crashed into the railings outside the apartments on this junction. Three of these collisions occurred in the last seven months, and two in the last two months, causing considerable damage and concern.
There are many older residents in this area, some of whom are scared to walk on the pavements outside their own front doors due to the speed of traffic and the frequency of collisions at this site. In the most recent example, residents were walking along the pavement just moments before the incident. Residents are rightly concerned for pedestrian safety and fear a serious accident, causing personal injury, will occur.
A resident petition for safety measures at this junction was presented to the Council over a year ago. What measures is the Council taking to ensure safety at this junction, in particular for the many pedestrians in this area?
Answer:
The Council is sorry to learn of collisions with private property referred to by the elected Member. Wiltshire Road is a busy A-class road carrying over 8200 vehicles daily and Police reports show one collision involving an injury to a road user, but not associated with the private property.
Average and 85%ile speeds are compliant with the speed limit. Given the high level of use and low injury collision record it is clear that the road does not have an inherent safety risk, that engineering measures would be able to address.
Whilst it is evident from resident reports that, over the past year, some drivers have failed to cope with a road layout that has been in place for decades and caused no problem to drivers previously using this road, the absence of information about individual collisions means that it is not possible to identify factors that may have contributed to the recent spate of incidents. Certainly, the road layout, signs and markings at this location are all appropriate and serve to manage traffic safely.
However, there is an ongoing assessment into the possible provision of a formal crossing facilities at this location which may present an opportunity for other changes to be made. Otherwise, incidents of excessive speed, should they be the cause, are a matter of enforcement for Thames Valley Police to consider.
Supplementary Question:
You mentioned the absence of Police evidence and other evidence regarding this area, but my understanding is that is partly because yet there has been no serious personal injury or death at that site, so my question is, what can we do now as a Council to ensure that we move away from this position where we appear to have to wait for something really awful to happen before any action is actually taken?
Supplementary Answer:
The difficulty we have is that we do not actually have the causation factor of these incidents. Unfortunately, no Highway Authority can plan for bad driver behaviour or driving under the influence of drugs, or excess alcohol, or mechanical failure. Therefore, there is little we can actually do but just monitor the site and get as much information as possible from any incidents that unfortunately occur in the future.