Accident at Sainsbury's Roundabout, ...waiting to happen? Options

[wabbit]

I was saddened to learn that the huge disruption to traffic this morning was due to an accident involving an elderly pedestrian on the Sainsbury's roundabout. It goes without saying that this is a tragedy for this gentleman's family and hopefully, forum members will refrain from 'smart alec' comments such as those which accompanied the posts on the Headley ford drowning.

But, I really wanted to question the safety of all the crossings around this roundabout. I have only recently (in an effort to save parking charges) taken advantage of Sainsbury's two hour free parking for customers and used these crossing points to go into the town centre. I was frankly, terrified - although there is a 40mph speed limit on this stretch of road and there are 'green man' signals for each of the separate crossing points, it feels quite unsafe as a pedestrian as traffic seems to be flying past and some drivers seem to accelerate wildly away from the lights. I am not elderly and my eyesight, hearing and faculties are fine but I have always been fearful, as a driver, that someone will step out in front of a car - and today, it would seem they did.

Of course I realise one could use the underpass, but, as a female, 'underpasses' are something I have always tried to avoid where there is an 'above ground' option. Maybe though, this might be a time to look at the safety of all these crossing points and consider whether to extend the railings and not allow pedestrians to cross above ground - maybe making the underpasses the only option?

[TJHaines]

I hope the poor man makes a full recovery in Hospital and thoughts are with his family.

However, although I know cars come speeding round the corners, and many go faster than they should do, especially between the different sets of lights, the pedestrians also cause a lot of problems.

I haven't been driving for very long, however the amount of times I have seen a pedestrian press the button and then cross without waiting for the green man because they thought it was safe to do so, and pedestrians who decide to actually cross the dual carriageway, climb over the railings in the middle and then cross on the other side is ridiculous!

I think everyone needs to have a lot more awareness of their surroundings and remember that cars will do a lot of damage to you if it hits you at speed, and they can't always be blamed if someone was to step right out in front of them.

[Newbelly]

Sorry to hear about the accident.

I have previously thought whether the crossing should be moved a little towards the rail station to take it a bit away from the junction.

[TallDarkAndHands...]

Sorry to hear about the accident.

I have previously thought whether the crossing should be moved a little towards the rail station to take it a bit away from the junction.

I don't think that the lights for the pedestrians are very well sync'd. You cross from the town side to the middle on green and just as you get to the 2nd crossing it turns red. You are then tempted to flee across rather than wait.