Friday 18 June 2010

Making A Drama Out Of A Crisis Accident...

Fears have been raised for users of a “rat run” country lane after a mother-of-four died falling from her bike.

Residents are calling for Mill Hill, Lawford, near Dedham Road, to be made a 30 mph zone to reduce the risk to cyclists, walkers and drivers travelling along it.
Typical! Bloody motorists, not respecting the rights of other road users, going too fast, driving like they pay for the road or something, and oh, did I say bloody motorists..?
Jane Wilsher, of Long Road East, Dedham, was cycling downhill on Mill Hill at just after 11am on Sunday morning when she fell.
Yes, fell because of a bloody motorist, right?

Oh:
Police said no other vehicles were involved in the accident.
Wait, what..?
Paul Gallifant, who lives on Mill Hill, was at home when the accident happened.

“Apparantly a chap in a car was coming the opposite way,” he said.

“I suspect she came up on the bike, saw him coming the other way and skidded.

“He is apparantly the only witness and he was obviously very shaken up.”
Ummmm...

Not that this is putting a stop on the actions of the 'Something must be DONE!' crowd, naturally:
Merriel Gallifant, also of Mill Hill, said she has been campaigning for Essex County Council to change the speed limit.

“This road is just so dangerous,” she said. “It’s a rat run.”
Well, it may be, but there's no indication that speed or even the motorist caused this (other than being present). So why the sudden screeching?
“I had Essex County Council take a survey of the road some years ago to see how fast the cars were going.”

She added: “After assessing 642 cars the average speed was more than 50 mph which is ridiculous.

“I was absolutely shocked.

They need to put up a speed restriction for 30 mph along the entire road.”
There's no indication that he was doing more than 30mph, indeed, that she wouldn't have fallen off her bike if he'd been parked.

11 comments:

Clarissa said...

Looking at a map, I can see no useful reason to reduce the speed limit. It is a single carriageway road not an urban or residential area so 50mph is appropriate.

What I can't figure out is why the chap mentioned believes she may have skidded because she saw a car coming the other way. If she knew the road well and both parties were obeying the rules of the road then it should surely have been unnecessary for her to use her brakes.

Bucko said...

“I was absolutely shocked." OMG. Gasp!

Oh unclench! Get to the pub and enjoy yourself.

Anonymous said...

ApparEntly you are full of crap.

NickM said...

Round where I live it keeps going 30-40-30-40 quite arbitarily. The switches are to catch you out. They also - along with hordes of irrelevant signage only succeed in keeping your eyes off things like the actual road, conditions and other road users.

Of course if this causes an accident then we all know what will be blamed don't we?

wv: nowin - how apt.

Quiet_Man said...

Whole point of a rat run is that it's used during "rush hour" to avoid main routes.
Point 1) judging from the map this is a main route.
Point 2) It was a Sunday, you don't tend to use rat runs on a Sunday as there's no traffic.

Sounds like some people are trying to use that woman's death as a pretext to support their own agenda.

Loki said...

Darwinism. Seemples.

Woman on a Raft said...

Assuming this is the correct
Mill Hill, Lawford, Manningtree, Essex CO11 2JZ, UK

then googlemaps shows it as a stretch of road which links Jupes Hill and Dedham Road. (Sorry, can't link direct. Use the search term given in bold in googlemaps).

It goes under the railway line and for about 3/4 of its length runs through woodland and heavily-wooded gardens.

If you click on Streetview you can 'drive' along the road, which appears to be a single track, and is between banks at some points.

If I've got the right Mill Hill, it is quite surprising that it is described as a 'rat run' as there is a strong bend under the railway line which amounts to a blind corner, and you'd have to use passing places. It is more of an access track than a road.

Personally, I wouldn't drive this road at more than 30 simply because you can't tell what is coming round that bend and the banks are so close at some points that the whole road is restricted.

The lady giving quotes is Merriel Gallifant. She and her husband Paul are keen walkers and members of the Dedham Footpaths society.

Her statements seem opportunistic.

microdave said...

"driving like they pay for the road or something"
Er, Yes, we do - actually....

SadButMadLad said...

@Woman on a raft.

The joys of a tiny bit of research on the net. Something that serious churnalists don't seem to do as part of their job anymore.

JuliaM said...

"What I can't figure out is why the chap mentioned believes she may have skidded because she saw a car coming the other way."

It's a puzzle. She may have braked suddently because a cat or fox ran across the road. Without a direct witness, no-one will ever know.

"ApparEntly you are full of crap."

Cheers, anon. Thanks for stopping by with your...

Well, what did you bring to the discussion, exactly?

"Round where I live it keeps going 30-40-30-40 quite arbitarily. The switches are to catch you out. "

That's certainly the suspicion, when it seems to serve no obvious need.

"Sounds like some people are trying to use that woman's death as a pretext to support their own agenda."

Yup. Which is not unheard of, frankly...

JuliaM said...

"Personally, I wouldn't drive this road at more than 30 simply because you can't tell what is coming round that bend..."

Ah, if only everyone abided by that commonsense doctrine. I've seen people break almost every rule on the Highway Code, and I've only been driving for about 15 years!

""driving like they pay for the road or something"
Er, Yes, we do - actually...."


I know... :D

"The joys of a tiny bit of research on the net. Something that serious churnalists don't seem to do as part of their job anymore."

Indeed.

When not taking accounts from locals at face value, they are printing verbatim government statements or company press releases...