Four-car crash on A-road 'not linked' to new junction layout, says council

A four-car crash on a Somerset A-road on Friday was “not linked” with a newly redesigned junction, the local council has insisted. One person received hospital treatment for an injury not considered to be life-threatening after the four vehicles collided on the A370 near Brockley on Friday April 19.

Police, ambulance, and fire services all attended the scene. The collision happened a short distance down the road from the junction with Brockley Combe Road, which had recently been redesigned by North Somerset Council.

A post on North Somerset Council’s Facebook page on Wednesday April 24 said: “We understand a road traffic incident took place on the A370 on Friday. Thank you to the emergency services who attended.

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“We’ve been in touch with the police who have confirmed that the incident took place after the traffic had gone through the junction safely and was not linked to the new junction layout.”

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “We have studied dashcam footage which shows a number of vehicles were stopped in traffic at the Brockley Combe junction travelling westbound, towards Cleeve, at about 5.30pm. When the lights turned green, the traffic continued straight on through the junction before soon afterwards slowing and stopping. Four of the vehicles at the front of the queue safely stopped without incident and were able to continue their journey unaffected.

“The next four cars — a red MG, red Vauxhall, grey BMW and a white Jaguar — subsequently collided and were damaged. One of the drivers received hospital treatment for an injury that was not considered life-threatening.

“The road was closed for approximately three-and-a-half hours. We are grateful for the public’s patience while we attended to this incident, and an unrelated single-vehicle collision in nearby Downside Road later that same evening, which had a considerable impact on traffic in the area.

“Enquiries into the collision are ongoing. Anyone with information or dashcam footage showing the incident are asked to call 101 and quote reference number 5224100465, or report it online.”

In their Facebook post, North Somerset Council added that the bus lanes meets government guidelines and is wide enough for buses to use, despite claims from some to the contrary, and that they were “urgently” working on the traffic light timings.

A previous post on North Somerset Council’s Facebook page on Monday April 22, which did not reference the crash, said the new junction was still in a “snagging period” and the council would work with road users and other stakeholders to tackle issues as a matter of “standard practice.” It said: “We have been advised that the traffic signal timings are a little off, so we will need to adjust this. This will be resolved as soon as possible and is not unexpected - often smart traffic systems need time to bed in.

“There are also some additional road markings that we’ll be putting in place end of this week/start of next to help drivers a step further in navigating the new junction. We’ll continue to work closely with the bus company and local stakeholders should any additional snags become clear over the next few weeks.”

The redesign of the junction with designated bus lanes was one of a host of schemes planned across North Somerset after the council was handed one of the largest amounts of “bus service improvement plan” (BSIP) funding in the country by the government.

But the rollout of further bus lanes was put on “pause” last week after councillors warned that the construction of the schemes was causing more disruption than the new bus lanes were worth.