A12 most dangerous road

[crankedup]

A bunch of council members have deemed the A12 Essex area the most dangerous road in Britain, no stats of course. So a report has been comissioned and the likely outcome is that the road will require a third lane in both directions, or averarge speed camera's bunged up. Wonder which they will plump for?

Edited by crankedup on Wednesday 9th April 19:18

[Mattt]

I would hazard a guess that most accidents are due to the appalling junction design once you get north of Colchester! Maybe they were ok in the 1950's, but not today.

[Simpo Two]

I would hazard a guess that most accidents are due to drivers not paying sufficient attention. Reach down to fiddle with the MP3 player, car in front brakes, bang, road shut for half a day while Plod struts about playing cones.

[Cerberowner]

When I use it, I join it going north bound at Hatfield Peverel. The acceleration lane is quite short and getting up to speed to merge with the traffic can be difficult for some - not me of course

[crankedup]

Update : the A12 dangerous road tag only applies to the section Colchester to Brentwood and back again of course! (thought this was the section that has just had millions of pounds spent on it).

[Jonny_uk]

Simpo two...........CORRECT

The road isnt dangerous is it? Its fine if people drive according to conditions and common sense.

Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 10th April 15:38

[Mattt]

Simpo Two said:

I would hazard a guess that most accidents are due to drivers not paying sufficient attention. Reach down to fiddle with the MP3 player, car in front brakes, bang, road shut for half a day while Plod struts about playing cones.

Why is the A12 different to any other road in that respect?

[Simpo Two]

Jonny_uk said:

Simpo two...........CORRECT

The road isnt dangerous is it? Its fine if people drive according to conditions and common sense.

Unless the Council has topped it with Skid-O-Matic asphalt of course

I heard that the Fire Brigade was getting new orders to deal with accidents such that the roads could be re-opened quicker after a prang. But when a road is running at capacity, any stoppage is quickly going to tail back.

Of course the slower vehicles go, the longer they spend on the road getting from A to B, so lowering speed limits is a sure way to get instant extra congestion.

I saw a road safety poster yesterday, part of the Think! campaign, which says that to reduce accidents we need to 'slow down, belt up' and do something else I can't remember - possibly eat more fruit. However there was no mention of making drivers better drivers.

NB Sorry about the edit Jonny, I clicked the wrong button

Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 10th April 15:38

[Simpo Two]

Mattt said:

Simpo Two said:

I would hazard a guess that most accidents are due to drivers not paying sufficient attention. Reach down to fiddle with the MP3 player, car in front brakes, bang, road shut for half a day while Plod struts about playing cones.

Why is the A12 different to any other road in that respect?

Only that the A12 is very busy, varies from 2 to 3 lanes and has poor surfaces in places - like the right-hander northbound near Silver End that shakes your fillings out. So it gets more accidents because it has more hazards and people fail to adjust for them. It's still human error, but the chances for error are higher.

[crankedup]

The A14 is far more congested than A12 and simply has inherently more hazzards for the average driver to negotiate. The biggest single hazzard being the HGV apparently going to and heading away from the docks.
IMHO the A12 statement is again positive proof that joined up thinking within the so called authorities just do'esnt exist. A case of he who shouts loudest perhaps having his/her bowl filled with the most goverment(our)cash.

[DJFish]

It's not the road, it's the drivers.
There are too many of them and they tend to drive badly and at different speeds.

Invariably it's always lane 2 that's full of cars waiting for an overtake that will never happen with lane 1 virtually empty.

I find the best thing to do is slow down a bit and go with the flow, I suspect that'll be what HM Govt. decides as well.

[Cerberowner]

DJFish said:

I find the best thing to do is slow down a bit and go with the flow, I suspect that'll be what HM Govt. decides as well.

More likely they'll put in average speed scameras and force you to slow down and go with the flow.

[Arthur Jackson]

Cerberowner said:

When I use it, I join it going north bound at Hatfield Peverel. The acceleration lane is quite short and getting up to speed to merge with the traffic can be difficult for some - not me of course

And there are two houses there that people park outside!!!

[Simpo Two]

crankedup said:

The A14 is far more congested than A12 and simply has inherently more hazzards for the average driver to negotiate.

Actually I'd say the A12 is worse, but I suppose it depends a lot on time of day and which bit you do.

[cuneus]

Cerberowner said:

When I use it, I join it going north bound at Hatfield Peverel. The acceleration lane is quite short and getting up to speed to merge with the traffic can be difficult for some - not me of course

You should try Silver End!

I use the A13/A130 just to avoid the A12 as far as possible

[Cerberowner]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

No - they should be fined and have a point on their licence if they don't. This should apply to other examples of poor driving as well e.g. leaving rear fog lights on, not clearing windows before setting off and a whole list of other things that I'm sure we could draw up.

[susser]

Blimey;
You've only got to be driving along and watch what happens when it starts to rain.
Usually nothing.
Except that people crash more.
They rarely have "Accidents" what they have is a collision which was the predictable outcome of driving like a tt.

[Jasandjules]

Mattt said:

I would hazard a guess that most accidents are due to the appalling junction design once you get north of Colchester! Maybe they were ok in the 1950's, but not today.

Bingo.

Some of the "slip roads" are about 40ft long.. Not ideal on such a busy road, they just need to put in reasonable slip roads to allow people to get up to speed.

[Simpo Two]

Cerberowner said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

No - they should be fined and have a point on their licence if they don't.

Even if there's nothing behind them? I think drivers have enough fines and points to dodge already. You can now be fined for throwing an apple core out of the window...

[crankedup]

The tramlines on roads caused by HGV's being to large for our roads is quite horrific should you encounter these whilst motorcycling. First time it happened to me I thought I had a puncture and the violent weave almost had me off my bike. HGV damage to roads seems to be an increasing problem.