Police comissioner steps into A31 speed row after Jade Clark crash

9:28am Monday 4th March 2013 in News

Police comissioner steps into A31 speed row after Jade Clark crash Police comissioner steps into A31 speed row after Jade Clark crash

HAMPSHIRE’S police and crime commissioner has stepped into the row over speed limits on a notorious road where a teenage girl lost her life.

Simon Hayes says he “shared the concerns” of local residents and motorists and is arranging top level talks with his counterpart in Dorset to discuss the matter.

As reported, campaigners have been fighting for a new 50mph limit on the A31 at Ringwood and have the backing of more than 1,000 local residents.

But just days after they were told by highways chiefs that not enough people had been injured to justify it, 16-year-old Jade Clark was killed on the same stretch of road when her red moped was in collision with several vehicles.

One of them was a silver Volvo XC90 that drove off from the scene and the driver is now being hunted by police.

As reported on Saturday, a reward of £1,000 is being offered for information leading an arrest and conviction.

Jade's parents are to speak at a press conference today.

Mr Hayes has asked for accident and fatality figures on the A31 and said he was “disturbed” by the latest incident in which Jade was killed.

He said: “I share the concerns of those who are lobbying for a reduction in the speed limit on the A31. I am equally disturbed about this latest tragic incident which occurred just over the border in Dorset.

“I have since requested a detailed summary of incidents within the Hampshire stretch of the A31 from the constabulary's roads policing unit and when I am in possession of those facts I will be better placed to make a more informed view about any value I could add to the debate.

“I will also be speaking to Martyn Underhill, the PCC for Dorset, to seek his views on the issue.”

Angry campaigners are threatening to take the matter straight to the Department of Transport in light of the Highways Agency declaring the route, between Picket Post and the Ashley Heath roundabout, not sufficiently dangerous to warrant a reduction.

Councillors are also refusing to take “no” for an answer and have vowed to carry on lobbying for a speed reduction.

They are being backed by Conservative MP Desmond Swayne who has tried |for 15 years to have |the speed limit on the road cut and said the refusal was “very frustrating” and “bureaucracy”.

 

Comments(5)

charlie2004 says...
10:30am Mon 4 Mar 13

Why not do an online petition Echo.

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dorsetspeed says...
1:13pm Mon 4 Mar 13

Simon Hayes is showing some sense - rather than supporting the knee-jerk "there's been a death so the limit has to go down" which is far to simplistic an approach which could easily fail to make the roads safer overall, he is looking for the facts. As unpleasant and distressing this may be, we will far better reduce deaths like this if we are led by the facts, not by emotion.

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dorsetspeed says...
1:13pm Mon 4 Mar 13

Simon Hayes is showing some sense - rather than supporting the knee-jerk "there's been a death so the limit has to go down" which is far to simplistic an approach which could easily fail to make the roads safer overall, he is looking for the facts. As unpleasant and distressing this may be, we will far better reduce deaths like this if we are led by the facts, not by emotion.

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billez says...
2:59pm Mon 4 Mar 13

We don't even know if the vehicles involved in the incident with Jade were going more than 50 MPH anyway. I drove through the area last night at a safe and steady 70MPH. It was around 11pm so not busy but if the limit is reduced how many drivers will concentrate on their speedo rather than on the road!! The simple fact is the junction needs re-designing. Over less than a mile in the westbound direction there are 4 routes on and 3 routes off the A31, that's the danger, the speed is secondary!!

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anigel says...
6:47pm Mon 4 Mar 13

billez wrote:
We don't even know if the vehicles involved in the incident with Jade were going more than 50 MPH anyway. I drove through the area last night at a safe and steady 70MPH. It was around 11pm so not busy but if the limit is reduced how many drivers will concentrate on their speedo rather than on the road!! The simple fact is the junction needs re-designing. Over less than a mile in the westbound direction there are 4 routes on and 3 routes off the A31, that's the danger, the speed is secondary!!
I have to agree, Many people will always assume that the speed limit is at fault, but the problem is not with the speed people are going, but rather that some people are incapable of driving in a safe manner regardless of the speed they are going.

We don't need lower limits and we don't need speed cameras. We need traffic police on the roads looking for and prosecuting bad driving rather than speed being the only thing that matters.

Unfortunately there is not a speed camera in the world that will get people off the road that are incapable of driving in a straight line at 30mph or that don't bother to check blind spots before changing lanes.

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