Wednesday 6 July 2011

Askew Road/Uxbridge Road car crash

A car smash with a van took place on the super-dangerous Askew/Uxbridge Road junction yesterday evening on the same day that several of you warned that it was an accident waiting to happen, in response to my story about the Brook Green car accident earlier this week.

A reader who saw the accident wrote in yesterday to me to report this: 
"there were a number of emergency vehicles near the Askew Road/Uxbridge Road junction which one commenter on your blog earlier branded "an accident waiting to happen". Someone is telepathic. I'm not sure what was going on, but I overheard a police officers telling a number of male youths that they would have to wait whilst their friend was examined because he had suffered "head injuries". 
At the side of the road was a transit-style van (not sure if it was a transit or not), a BMW, two police vans, one police car, an ambulance and a paramedic car. The ambulance had arrived about 60 seconds before me (it passed the bus I was on) however the injured individual had already been bundled into the ambulance (suggesting he was walking wounded). 
Neither the van or the car appeared to have suffered any damage, so it is unlikely that it was a collision between the two vehicles - although it clearly was something a little more serious given the heavy police response. I can only imagine that someone had either been knocked down or attacked"?
I have spoken to the Police this morning who have given me the details of the incident, which is as follows:
Police were called at 19:00hrs by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) at 19:00hrs to reports of a collision along Askew Road near the junction with the Uxbridge Road, W12.
A male casualty was taken to a West London Hospital with non life threatening or changing injuries.
No arrests.
Which is a relief. But as one of you said just yesterday about this junction:
"Talking of frustrating junctions, the Askew Road/Uxbridge Road junction really, really, really should have a right filter. Traffic turning right moves into the centre of the road then can't turn for the traffic going straight-ahead. In the end, only one or two vehicles get to turn right per phase, and by the time they cross the pedestrian crossings they're going across whilst the pedestrians are on green. Accident waiting to happen..."
And how right you were - let's not forget the time someone was dragged under a van at that junction and the number of occasions we have probably all witnessed bad driving there, in part provoked by the frustrating and ridiculous traffic system there, which provokes this sort of behaviour. 

Time to do something about it, H&F Council, before I'm reporting a fatality.

6 comments:

  1. Hi.

    Thanks for getting the info back about this so quickly. What I find remarkable about this junction is that if I see a 266 bus turning down Askew Road I can invariably beat it to the stop around the corner, even when I'm two streets away. That really reinforces the fact that turning right at this junction is far too difficult. The thing about cars coming across the pedestrian junction is very true too. It seems to happen a lot, especially with cars turning right from Uxbridge Road on to Old Oak Road.

    Lawrence

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  2. In addition the operating times of bus lanes (set up by different local authorities)East and West of the junction are still confusing and lead to various levels of rage when everyone is trying to get into the 'straight ahead' lane, particularly going West.

    How did Ken Livingstone expect to put a tram down this road - presumably by diverting cars around side streets unsuitable for heavy vehicular traffic? Let's remember that and the expensive full colour 'consultation' documents that went with the proposal when the Mayoral election comes round again.

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  3. There's an issue with the phasing of those lights, in my view.

    You get a massive queue blocking up Old Oak road, and stretching back to the Westway. It moves at the rate of about 2 cars every cycle of the lights.

    That means that motorists (myself included) are exasperated and frustrated by the time they actually get to the lights. Sometimes that queue can take over 15 minutes to get through.

    And THAT means motorists are more likely to do something silly out of impatience... such as jumping the red.

    High time it got sorted.

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  4. Why people are careless and why they don't obey rules and regulation. so that these types of victims are happened.obey the rule and regulation gets its benefits.

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  5. It's good to hear that no one was seriously hurt. It's not a joke having to deal after an accident - physically and emotionally. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

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  6. I have written to my local Councillor and it elicited this detailed reply from H&F. I still think it needs a right filter or at the very least a re-design of the bus lanes.


    Dear Councillor Homan,

    I Casework Ref.394993 - Right hand turn filter

    Thank you for your email of 2nd October 2011 regarding the junction of Uxbridge Rd
    with Askew Rd.

    With regards to the traffic signals at the junction of Uxbridge Rd with Askew Rd, I
    confirm highways improvements were completed at the junction in June 2010. The
    purpose of the junction improvements were to ease/reduce traffic congestion at the
    junction by making changes to the road layout by widening the road, repositioning of
    central road islands, remarking of traffic lane markings on the approaches and
    upgrading of the traffic signals. This provided benefits to all traffic users
    (buses, cyclists, pedestrians and motorists).

    I can confirm that right turn filters had been assessed as part of the design
    considerations for the junction. The conclusion was that the introduction of the
    Uxbridge Rd east and westbound filters would have had a negative effect on the
    phased traffic timings for the other junction roads and would therefore not achieved
    the intended benefits of the scheme.

    If you have any further queries regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to
    contact me on telephone number 020 8753 3056.

    Yours sincerely


    Colin Glendenning
    Team Manager
    Highways and Construction
    Highways & Engineering Division
    Environment Services Department
    London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

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