Collisions lead to A17 safety calls

Average speed cameras enforcing a 50mph speed limit on the A17 could be introduced after a host of recent collisions on the road.

Lincolnshire County councillor Peter Coupland raised the issue at a meeting of Holbeach Parish Council on Monday night (January 15) and said the cameras could be an option being looked at.
Calls were also made that the road should be made a dual carriageway but he said that would likely fail due to the cost associated with the work.
“We’ve had quite a number of incidents on that road and they’re becoming more frequent over the years,” he said. “There are ten junctions between Gedney and Holbeach and an expanding haulage yard and recycling plant there as well.
“I’ve got Highways and LCC to look at the road.
“They want to extend the survey all the way through to Sutterton.
“I think if you’re driving along that road and don’t know it, there are a lot of things to compute.
“There are various junctions, braking points, the weather and I think that’s what’s causing it.
“One person’s mistake usually involves two or three others.
“It’s been concerning for a while but these last three months have been horrendous.
“We had a fatality at Gendey at Christmas.
“We’re going to push them to get something underway.
“They won’t look at widening the road or making it a dual carriageway as there’s just not the money to do it.
“But it could be like a 50mph average speed camera as you can’t think as quick if you’re doing 70mph than if you’re doing 50mph.”
Holbeach parish councillor Tim Wiltshire, who acted as chairman for the meeting said the council should lobby for central government to fund the dualling of the road.
“The issue with the A17 is it’s an over-worked road,” he said. “It needs dualling in various places and we should be pushing this rather than thinking about speed restrictions and reducing the efficiency of the road in terms of the economy.
“We need to be investing in the road itself and getting central government to invest in it.”
The day after the meeting a two-vehicle collision closed part of the A17 near Fosdyke.
Nobody was injured in the collision, Lincolnshire Police said, but the road was closed for two hours.
A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council, said: ““At the moment, there are no set plans for the A17 between Gedney and Sutterton.
“However, we will be meeting with the local councillor and LRSP to discuss potential options to improve safety here.
“These would likely be implemented on a location-by-location basis since it’s such a long stretch of road.”