DRIVERS? Volume of traffic? Badly designed road junctions? Just what is the cause of the accidents plagueing Bournemouth?

Last week saw yet more misery for motorist on the town’s roads after a collision between a car and a lorry at the Cambridge Road roundabout on the Wessex Way.

Passengers were trapped inside the vehicles and police were forced to close the road after fuel was spilled, causing chaos around the town yet again.

But drivers are becoming used to sitting in traffic following collisions around Bournemouth – accidents and the resulting gridlock were so bad on three occasions during July alone that the story made the front pages of the Echo.

Readers inundated our website with their views on what led to so many accidents, but what do the professionals think?

James Duncan, Bournemouth Borough Council’s head of transportation, said it was a priority to provide safer roads and reduce accidents, with work such as junction realignment, road humps and anti-skid surfacing planned in line with an annual review of collisions.

But he stressed that driver error was the main cause of accidents in the town.

“We are especially concerned about the relatively large number of accidents on Wessex Way where, in two recent collisions, a vehicle has been flipped onto its roof,” he added.“Quite apart from the injury to the occupants, the blocking of this important route around the town centre caused huge delays and inconvenience to other motorists.

“Having looked at all the accidents on this road over the last five years, the main causes have been impatience, inattention or other examples of bad driving.

“The Wessex Way was designed by Dorset County Council about 40 years ago when traffic flows were much lower. The design standards have moved on a great deal since then, especially for the eastbound on-ramp at Richmond Hill, the scene of 13 accidents in the last five years.”

But it seems improvement works such as those carried out in line with the annual accident review have been ruled out at this location, despite it being a hotspot for collisions.

Mr Duncan ruled out bringing the entry ramp up to the latest standards as “hugely expensive and damaging to Horseshoe Common”.

He said that, instead, the speed limit on the Wessex Way from the approaches to St Paul’s roundabout through to County Gates would be reduced from 50mph to 40mph in the autumn.

Paul Watters, the AA’s head of roads policy, said drivers, roads and vehicles were the main three factors in most collisions.

“Often the majority of accidents are put down to some driver involvement in terms of error, misjudgement or not driving for the conditions – rain or wind,” he added.

“Volume of traffic tends not to be such an issue. You may get shunts on the busy roads, like the A31.”

But he did concede that drivers unfamiliar with the area could pose a hazard on the roads.

“Some of it is that you’re on holiday, you’ve got nearly to your destination so you tend to be a bit more relaxed,” he said.

“The local driver versus the tourist is not always a good mix – the local driver may assume that they know where they’re going.”

Mr Watters added that road layout was not one of the main causes of accidents and that motorists should be well able to cope with a short slip-road, such as at Blackwater Junction, or changing lanes on a roundabout such as the Cooper Dean.