Driver: improve safety in Owslebury (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Driver: improve safety in Owslebury

in News By Chris Harris

A WOMAN involved in a crash which killed a car passenger near Winchester has backed calls for better road safety near the accident scene.

The 47-year-old has taken the unusual step of speaking publicly about the smash in a bid to get improvements implemented at the Owslebury junction.

She was driving along Morestead Road earlier this month when she was in collision with a Fiat Doblo at Longwood Crossroads.

Speaking to the Hampshire Chronicle on the condition she remained anonymous, the woman, from Hambledon, described the moments leading up to the crash.

“As I was at the junction this burgundy car came out from the Bramdean side, heading towards Owslebury,” she said.

“It was all really quick. I did not even have time to put the brakes on.”

She went on to describe the “huge, huge collision” that followed, which left her Land Rover Discovery on its roof, and a 64-year-old man from the other car dead.

She added: “Somebody was killed on impact which was appalling, they were thrown a long way from the car.

“I thought my number was up, I was hugely relieved when the car came to a standstill and I was alive.

“It was really appalling, it was a nightmare situation, you don’t think it is going to happen to you.”

The woman, who was on her way to a part-time job at a Winchester hair salon, called on highways bosses to take action at the crossroads.

“It’s so, so dangerous, it should be staggered so you have to stop,” she said.

“It’s only a matter of time before something else happens again.

“I think speed cameras along that straight stretch would be good, but the council have told me there are not enough accidents to warrant it.

“One death is too many, if you’ve got a blackspot there cost should not come into it at all. People’s lives are the most important thing.”

The woman said she was travelling at around 50mph prior to the incident, which happened shortly before 9am on Saturday, August 1.

She confirmed she knows Morestead Road well because she has a nine-year-old son at Twyford Preparatory School and uses the route up to four times a day.

Joseph Wolf, of Mitcham, Surrey, a rear seat passenger in the Fiat, was pronounced dead at the scene.

In February 2008, five people were hospitalised after an unmarked police car containing four officers undergoing response training collided with a lorry at the junction. Three months later a woman was airlifted to hospital with pelvic injuries after another crash at the crossroads.

But county highways bosses say £75,000 has been spent on improving safety there, with a number of enhancements at Longwood Crossroads.

They include anti-skid surfacing, rumble strips, signs informing motorists if they’re travelling too fast, and improved visibility at the junction.

A spokesman added they could not comment further until they have received an accident investigation report from the police.