A mum who helps people who have suffered brain injuries, many in road accidents, has launched a petition calling for more safety measures on the A38.
Alison Wright has lived in Alrewas for the past six years and lived in Burton for the 20 years before that and she uses the A38 daily due to her work. She has told of her concern over the number of accidents on the stretch of the A38 near her home.
The mother-of-two said a rise in accidents on the major route, some serious, was a major concern and also causing problems for nearby residents due to congestion.
Alison has now set up a petition which she will present to Highways England. One of the things she wants to see considered is reducing the 70mph speed limit near Alrewas to 50mph, but she also wants the number of junctions joining the main route to be looked at.
It comes after the Burton Mail revealed there had been 18 crashes on the two-mile stretch of the dual carriageway at Alrewas in the past year. The latest accident happened on Tuesday, February 6, involving a car and a lorry, which left one man seriously injured. There is no suggestion that speed was a factor in this crash.
She said: "I live in Alrewas right on the A38 and many people from the village have to get on the A38 on a daily basis. Over the past few years the number of accidents has been rising and last week I realised enough was enough and something needed to be done so I set up the petition.
"I work with people who have brain injuries so I feel quite strongly about road traffic accidents and the impact they can have.
"I spend my week with people who have life changing injuries, many of them from road accidents so I know that it is not just about those killed, but those who are hurt too. It changes their lives immeasurably.
"I feel like nothing is being done to address the issue and this is important. The disruption to us as a community is ridiculous, but more than that this is about people’s lives.
"Each accident means that the injury toll and risk of death on this road is spiralling."
Alison decided to set up the petition on Tuesday after the latest crash and has since received 389 signatures from people backing her proposals.
She said: "The problem is that it is not one easy fixable thing. Exits and entrance slip roads are obscured by road signs and plantation and in Lichfield and Burton there are no end of junctions, plus there is no hard shoulder in that area.
"If you are coming south from Burton onto Burton Gateway there is a row of houses that go straight on to the A38. There are quite a lot of vans and HGV’s as well as the other vehicles - so there is potentially three different speed limits on the same lanes which doesn’t help.
"The stretch of A38 between Lichfield and Burton is becoming overwhelmed by ever increasing amounts of traffic, including a high proportion of HGVs travelling this stretch of route to access the many large warehouse depot facilities in the area.
"We want an urgent review of safety measures on this stretch of road and to reduce the speed limit between Lichfield and Burton to 50mph."
Burton MP Andrew Griffiths has long campaigned for more safety measures on the route. He has said that the number of accidents on this stretch of the road and on the section around Burton indicated to him that speed enforcement should be taking place.
Alison, a brain injury case manager, said the number of vehicles using the road was only going to increase and she thinks the quickest and easiest solution is to impose a lower speed limit.
She said: "I don’t know how these processes work but I think it is unrealistic to do something quickly about the slip roads; while they are trying to change them there will probably be accidents in the meantime.
"In some areas the speed cameras have been quite effective and I would anticipate that areas of the A38 could have the speed limit reduced quite quickly so that is what I am asking for.
"I am pleased with the response to the petition so far but I would like to raise people’s awareness and I would urge people to sign it if they want to see any changes made."
To find out more information or to sign the petition, visit: https://www.change.org/p/highways-england-reduce-the-a38-speed-limit-between-a5-m6-toll-lichfield-and-burton-upon-trent
Eighteen crashes on two-mile stretch in FIVE YEARS
There have been 18 accidents on the two-mile section of road near Alrewas between the A513 and the the Fradley junction on both sides of the road. Two people were killed in separate crashes, says the website CrashMap, which is compiled by collision analysts and road safety professionals. There were two other serious crashes when people were injured. The other 14 were minor ones when the drivers were not injured.
The website says on March 26 last year, there was a fatal accident and another death happened on the section of the road on April 27, last year. It also shows that on April 2 last year, two people were injured in a serious collision that involved five vehicles. The other serious crash involved two vehicles when one person was injured and happened in December 2014.
There have been other accidents on the A38 around the Branston turning, the website shows.
Tuesday’s crash, which happened near the Shell filling station, on the A38 at Fradley, in the early hours of the morning, saw the southbound side of the road closed for more than six hours as emergency services worked to free the car driver, carry out investigations at the scene and clear any debris from the wrecked car.
The driver of the red Seat Ibiza, who is a 34-year-old man from Stoke is in a "poorly but stable" condition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The 49-year-old lorry driver was taken to Burton's Queen's Hospital after complaining of back and side pain.
A spokesman for Staffordshire Police told the Burton Mail: "The car driver's condition remains the same, serious but stable, and the lorry driver is going to make a full recovery. The collision investigation unit is still investigating the incident and if anyone has any information they should contact us on 101 quoting incident number 077 of February 6."
