Shocking pictures show deadly carnage of ‘UK’s most dangerous’ road with 20 cars destroyed in a year
SHOCKING pictures have revealed the carnage of “Britain’s most dangerous road” – with 20 cars wrecked in a single year.
A resident in the rural village of Hanchurch, North Staffordshire, has been campaigning for a reduced speed limit along the “drag strip” for nearly 30 years.
The man, a 70-year-old who did not want to be named, has released a catalogue of images he has captured of crashes along the A519 Newcastle Road.
He claims to have seen nearly 20 cars written off in the last year along the stretch of road between the Junction 15 of the M6 and the nearby village of Knowl Wall.
His campaign began when a driver was killed in a side-on crash in 1995 – shortly after he moved into his home.
The man said: “The council is refusing to engage. They will not speak to me.
“I’ve filled in a form electronically on their website. They send a standard template answer: ‘We have no plans to make any changes to the road in that area.'”
“I’m fit for bursting about this. Something needs to be done now. They even suggested painting 30mph on my dustbin, for Christ’s sake. You or someone you know could be killed.”
His comments come after a stag had to be put down by a firearms officer last weekend after it was struck by a car.
The vehicle involved then crashed further up the road, though no injuries were reported.
Following the collision, the resident took matters into his own hands and added a sign reading “Too fast!” before the bend.
But it was thrown into the ditch a few days later.
An air ambulance rushed to the scene of a crash between a van and motorcyclist along the road in May 2021.
Fatal crashes took place along the road in September 2015 and November 2016, according to data from CrashMap.
He added: “I’ve got photos of cars that have crashed. I’ve picked up more dead animals than I care to count. I’m so frustrated.
“It’s mayhem with cars coming off the corner. Most just swerve and go down the grass verge.
“We’ve witnessed people who want to turn right down Drayton Road, another car behind can’t stop and they swerve round the right-hand side and go into the ditch.
“Visitors, residents and farmers in Hanchurch take their lives into their own hands when they try to join or exit the A519. We’ve not had one representative from the highway department.
“Last time I spoke to highways he said not enough people had been killed to warrant reducing the speed limit.”
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport David Williams, said: “Safety on our roads is an absolute priority to us and we regularly review speed limits, taking into account any incident data. However we expect drivers to be responsible and keep to speed limits.
“Driving to excessive speeds endangers other road users and themselves.
“We’d urge people to contact the police if they see anyone driving dangerously. Anyone with concerns should contact their local county councillor or our highways team.”
Residents have also complained about the noise of “constant thunder” from the volume of lorries driving along the road – along with the number of potholes.
Neighbours told StokeonTrentLive the road is “an accident waiting to happen” and has also become a dumping ground for abandoned traffic cones and roadwork signs.
A spokesperson from Staffordshire Police said: “We are committed to proactively policing our roads and carrying out enforcement and education efforts to reduce the number of injuries and fatal collisions across Staffordshire.
“We recently launched our #SaferSummerRoads on Monday (July 24) to further prevent speeding and increasing awareness around the dangers of speeding.
“It comes after a number of fatal road collisions in Staffordshire recently, which have increased by 39 per cent when compared to the pre-Covid-19 baseline (2019-2020).
“There were seven fatal collisions involving motorcycles in the last 12 months (June 22 to May 23), and three of these took place in the month of May alone.”