Front page and page three of the Free Press of yesterday's week features the A494 crash on the Mold side of the Clwyd Gate. It involved two cars and a bus. It comes no more than 30 years after a motorist died when, on the wrong side of the road at this very spot, he hit a bus (this was not the bus driver's fault). Then, the road had not been improved and was narrow and enclosed with tree growth further restricting the site. Even now, there are periodic crashes at the site, although there appears to have been none in the last three years.
Following February 1st's crash, perhaps predictably, there were calls for speed limits and the extension of double white lines, including from one of the victims, a 19 year old Rhuthun/Ruthin girl.
A knee-jerk reaction is inevitable but let's look at this logically. Fresh calls for a speed limit here will slow some traffic down but it won't stop overtaking. Neither will it actually stop the more reckless drier. In fact, a reduced speed will likely mean that more people will take risks, either taking advantage of overtaking opportunities resulting from slower moving traffic or simply through frustration. If general vehicle speeds reduce, it means that someone will feel more confident in overtaking a slower vehicle than a faster one and this will put themselves and others at a greater risk.
We understand that the bus driver was faced with two cars coming towards him on both sides of the road as one was overtaking the other. We wish the young 19 year old well: she seems to be an innocent victim in all this. But she also needs to remember that it isn't the road that in inherently unsafe, it's the users... and some people will never modify their behaviour when a speed limit is set.
That said, we would support the painting of double yellow lines immediately east of the Clwyd Gate to the first major bend, a distance of one-third of a mile. This is too short a section safely in which to overtake.
A knee-jerk reaction is inevitable but let's look at this logically. Fresh calls for a speed limit here will slow some traffic down but it won't stop overtaking. Neither will it actually stop the more reckless drier. In fact, a reduced speed will likely mean that more people will take risks, either taking advantage of overtaking opportunities resulting from slower moving traffic or simply through frustration. If general vehicle speeds reduce, it means that someone will feel more confident in overtaking a slower vehicle than a faster one and this will put themselves and others at a greater risk.
We understand that the bus driver was faced with two cars coming towards him on both sides of the road as one was overtaking the other. We wish the young 19 year old well: she seems to be an innocent victim in all this. But she also needs to remember that it isn't the road that in inherently unsafe, it's the users... and some people will never modify their behaviour when a speed limit is set.
That said, we would support the painting of double yellow lines immediately east of the Clwyd Gate to the first major bend, a distance of one-third of a mile. This is too short a section safely in which to overtake.
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Traffic