Lyminster bend “fatality waiting to happen”

In the latest incident, Lyminster Road was closed for 90 minutes last Wednesday (April 20), when a lorry and two cars collided, and though no one was hurt, it is only a matter of time, said Glyn Daughtery, who lives next to the crash site.

“It’s a miracle no one was killed,” she said, “the lorry ended up crashing into a tree on the pavement. What if someone had been walking along there? They would have been killed outright.”

It is a problem Glyn, 58, and her neighbours have been worried about for a long time, but their calls for greater speed restrictions, she said, had been falling on deaf ears for about six years.

“The problem is the speed limit goes from national to 30 miles per hour just before the bend, but people take no notice.

“They come off the A27, hit a national speed limit road, and carry on at that speed all the way into Littlehampton. They come thundering around the bend, and it is dangerous.”

She added that she and her neighbours had asked the county highways department and Sussex police for a lower speed limit, or speed regulation, along the stretch of road many times.

“We are told that it is not safe for police to stand there with speed guns. Well, how is it safe for people to walk along there, then?

“Because the accidents there have not involved injuries, highways say it is a low priority.”

The issue was also affecting her and her neighbours’ quality of life, said Glyn.

“I have lived here for 10 years, and in that time it has got worse and worse – the amount of lorries and the excess speed.

“I have been counting six lorries every 30 seconds. I can’t go in my garden, because of the noise and the pollution, and my house vibrates.”

A spokeswoman for West Sussex County Council said the highways department was aware of the area, and of residents’ concerns.

She said: “In the last three years there have been two reported injury accidents on each of the two sharp bends in Lyminster Road. Regrettably, there are many locations across the county that have a far worse accident rate, and these sites naturally become our priority.”

She added that the speed limit through Lyminster had been lowered from 40 to 30 miles per hour in 2004, and this had had a beneficial effect.

“Reported collisions on the eastern-most bend, where the speed limit changes from 30 miles per hour to the national speed limit, fell from five in three years to the current two in three years.

“An advisory 20 miles per hour speed limit is also given for vehicles negotiating the bends,” she said.