Making the Fosse Way safer
An array of safety measures are now in place on a stretch of the Fosse Way in Warwickshire in a bid to reduce the number of accidents.
Next week is Road Safety Week nationally, and Warwickshire County Council’s Road Safety Unit is using the week to highlight the huge amount of work that has gone on to make the B4455/A429 safer.
The county council’s Road Safety Unit has been reducing road casualties year on year, but a stretch of the Fosse Way showed high accident statistics and has been targeted.
A new scheme called RouteAware has been launched as a trial.
As in many other parts of the country, RouteAware highlights key crash cluster sites to road users using roadside poster signs and associated publicity materials. However, in the case of the Fosse Way the scheme has been complimented by improved signing and lining, safety cameras and vehicle activated signs.
There have been a number of serious collisions on certain parts of the Fosse over the past few years and therefore the county council’s Road Safety Unit is determined to tackle the type of crashes occurring.
The county council’s Community Safety Portfolio Holder Cllr Richard Hobbs, said: “Many road users are unaware of the tragic history that that lies in our county’s roads.
“As well as engineering measures to reduce casualties such as a new safety camera, flashing vehicle activated signs, improved signing and lining, Warwickshire County Council has been trialling a new initiative to raise awareness of dangers on this route through additional signing which aims at making people think about the route they are travelling on.”
Chris Fossey, Road Safety Liaison Officer, said: “A series of three signs will be used, firstly to notify the road user that they are entering a ‘High Risk Crash Route’, secondly the number of crashes that have occurred and finally a message asking drivers to ‘Take Extra Care’.”
The scheme is very similar to others that have been used around the country. Results from previous schemes have demonstrated that such a measure is effective at reducing road casualties. The Route Aware scheme has also been rolled out along the A45 from Dunchurch to the county boundary earlier this year.
Both schemes are supported by a range of publicity materials including leaflets and a website, for further information visit: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/routeaware