Safe Speed Forums

Hi all,

I'm not sure whether anyone is aware of this bit of road in the West Midlands between Birmingham and Coventry. See this map, it's basically the stretch between Balsall Common and the A45 at Stonebridge Island. Anyway, this road has a bad accident record and last year all except one of the gaps in the central reservation were closed with cones and a 50mph speed limit was set (it was previously NSL). There is currently a public consultation to permanently close off the gaps. There is also a speed detector on each side of the road which displays a flashing 50 if you exceed the limit past it. There are speed camera signs up which means that the police have to regularly use speed guns on the road, more on that later.

In the last few days driving past it has become quite obvious that gatsos will be installed on each side of the road near to where the one remaining gap in the central reservation is. I have a friend who works for Birmingham City council who has access to the database of accident records for the West Midlands and has done some research into this stretch of road. In the last 3 years there have been 2 fatal accidents on this stretch. One of them was a cyclist killed by a motorcyclist, the other was a motorcyclist killed by a drink driver. Both were almost certainly caused by the gaps but neither can be attributed to excess speed (although I'm sure they would try!). There are around 50 non-fatal accidents on file so he hasn't been able to go much into these, but I would hazard a guess that most were also related to the gaps. He called Solihull Council to speak to someone about the cameras being installed and asked why these weren't mentioned in the consultation. Apparently this is quite deliberate and without understanding any of the politics at play here it seems that they are within their rights to do this. He then questioned the need for a speed camera seeing as the 2 fatal accidents in the last 3 years would not have been prevented by a camera, and the guy got on the defensive and basically accused my friend of gaining the accident records by illegal means. Quite how he could claim that I don't know, surely the Freedom of Information act could be used to find out all of the accident statistics anyway couldn't it? It turns out that the camera will only be in place for a short while anyway, as there are plans to build a roundabout where the remaining gap is. Even so, there is little justification for a camera on this stretch of road. My friend asked the council guy how he could justify the cost of a camera if it was only to be used for a short period of time and he got the stock answer back - "can you put a cost on human life?". My friend asked why a camera was needed if the police were regularly checking speeds themselves, but it turns out that the police just can't afford to cover the site enough to justify the speed camera signs, which is probably why they need to put a permanent camera up instead. The guy then said that the camera would easily pay for itself within a few months. Ah, that's more like it, the truth at last, we think that with all the bikers using the road on summer evenings the money will be rolling in within no time at all.
It stinks. What can I do about it?

All perfectly normal, I'm afraid.

- You might be able to interest the local press. It often depends if the journalist you speak to has been scammed or not... No harm in picking up the phone, calling the local paper and asking for the news desk.

- You might become a member of the Safe Speed campaign. We're fighting the erroneous principles that allows this sort of thing to happen all day long. See: http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html

- You might try to interest your MP.

- You might put in some FOIs and gather a bit more information that exposes (for example) crash causes on that stretch of road. FOI results are likely to be of interest to a local paper.

- You might try to gather a few allies. Local traffic cops, possibly via the local IAM might have something to say.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I know the section well and I presume that the gap that will remain open is the one opposite the Lincoln Farm Café.

In the late 70's - early 80's, a recently qualified female driver, with four passengers 'lost it' on that left hand bend and one of the passengers got ejected from the vehicle and died. That said, the road is not in itself inherently dangerous and the bend in question is easily negotiable at the NSL (and a good bit more)

In recent years I've only been along it perhaps once and its use has diminished since the completion of the M42 as a 'through route' (It was originally built as a cul-de-sac )

Any examination of the accident stats would have to be assessed having regard to the local Night Club (Stocks, as it was then known) and this road being the route to and from 'Woodieland' from where the scroates emerge to chase the 'posh totty'.

Not that I have any social bias of course.

not a section i use a great deal so not familiar with all the gaps.

didn't the speed limit get dropped a few years back?.... if the gaps were the motivation for this perhaps it'll go back up when they plug them

the shutting off of the barston-berkswell gap has removed one of my commuting route options.... although still negogiable on the bike (if perhaps not entirely legally).