Just last night an accident occurred in my local area involving a motorcycle with a pillion passenger and another vehicle; the full circumstances of which are currently unknown. The accident occurred on the A6 connecting road between Alfreton and Shirland yesterday evening, with police blocking off access ways leading to the road; one of which was where I was driving when I became aware of the accident. Sources from www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk have confirmed that the rider was tragically killed, and his pillion passenger sustained a broken leg, after a collision with a Mazda on the A61 Chesterfield Road at around 19:15 last night.
The driver of the car was treated for shock at the scene, and Derbyshire Police are calling for witnesses, and can be contacted on 0345 1233333. It’s a tragic story, and very little information is currently available as to the identities of those involved, and the circumstances as to who may be at fault. One thing is certain though; the A61 is a road local to me and it’s been a bit of a danger for some time. In recent years, several measures have been introduced to prevent accidents from occurring. The road itself is a dual carriageway that drops down and then back up, meaning vehicles entering the road from either end pick up speed quickly before the centre point. At the centre point, the lowest point of the road, there is a turn off for a junction leading to a country road. It’s rather like a valley.
Previously, overtaking manoeuvres have been dangerous as vehicles wishing to turn off the road at the junction at the bottom of the hill are in the right hand lane slowing down to turn across the path of oncoming traffic. Not only are vehicles in the right hand lane overtaking forced to slow down quickly to compensate for this, but vehicles on the opposing side of the road will have picked up speed coming down on the slope from the other side, meaning traffic turning right must take extra care when crossing the lanes in to the country road. Accidents have occurred before.
In recent years, the dual lanes on the downward slopes have been reduced to single lane traffic with line painting to stop people using the right lane for overtaking, and allowing vehicles turning right to merge back over towards the bottom. The circumstances of this incident are currently not fully known, however with the road having a dangerous history, further measures may be required.
It’s a tragic story to hear of, and sadly the rider lost his/her life. It’s another example of an unfortunate accident that has ended in tragedy. Hopefully police will be able to ascertain the circumstances quickly, and the right measures can be taken.