Safety petition rejected after 'tragic accident'

A busy road where a “tragic accident” left a person with an amputated foot will not have any immediate improvements after a safety petition was rejected.

More than 300 people called on Surrey County Council (SCC) to improve the A30 Egham bypass crossing near Hummer Road by lowering the speed limit to 40mph.

Campaigners wanted average speed cameras and a signalled pedestrian crossing to be installed.

A SCC spokesperson said: "It is not possible to introduce traffic calming measures such as humps and road narrowing on a 40mph dual carriageway, as these can only be implemented on 30mph or 20mph speed limit roads."

They continued: "We do not have any plans to reduce the speed limit on this stretch of road at the current time."

Campaigners told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that people are having to dodge between vehicles at their own risk in order to cross the road.

The petition said: “Hundreds of people use the unregulated crossing daily, including with dogs and bicycles, and there has recently been a tragic accident requiring a foot amputation.

“We urge SCC to act as we have petitioned, to improve the safety of this crossing and hence to enable more people, including families, to access Runnymede Fields and Pleasure Grounds safely, to the benefit of their health and well-being.”

The petitioners were told there was no funding for a crossing, and that the council was not “legally permitted” to install traffic calming measures on the major road.

Councillor Marisa Heath said that she would speak with Surrey Police to see if more enforcement around the road could be carried out.

She added: “I’m not a highways engineer by any stretch, but putting a crossing on a road that is 40 or 50mph is something that needs to be considered really carefully.”

Improving the crossing would allow more people to reach historic sites such as the John F Kennedy memorial and Runnymede Fields, famous as the site where the Magna Carta was sealed, the petitioners said.

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