An extra lane in both directions please......soon!

Yesterday afternoon was one of those days when that second lane on the A303 in both directions, between West Amesbury and Berwick Down would have come in very handy, along with that by-pass around Winterbourne Stoke (WBS).    Campaigners from WBS have been asking for a by-pass for over 30 years....after all, where else would you have a main arterial route - in this case - "The Highway to Sun" progressing through a sleepy village??   If in fact, we'd had the aforementioned by-pass, we can be fairly certain this picture by a WBS resident, would not have been taken.   This is a frequent situation in WBS and fortunately, only metal was damaged in this accident....but it's not always the case when we look at police accident figures for the last 5 years around here.

In quick time, traffic with nowhere else to go, backed up in both directions. 
West bound, all the way beyond Longbarrow and indeed, to the dual carriagway out of West Amesbury - some 4.5miles/7km, Glastonbury Festival traffic adding to the chaos.
While out on my usual walk within the village of Shrewton just off the A303, it was evident that something must have happened on the A303, because the village had become busier than one would expect for a Monday afternoon......people in cars stopping to consult maps, a German registered car driver, taking the wrong route at temporary traffic lights within the village, and of course, the inevitable "white van man" breaking the 2 ton limit by using the High Street to steal a march on the standing traffic out there on the A303.....This is Longbarrow roundabout at the height of the traffic heading west >>>

Of course, there has to be a story behind the chaos and for this, we must go back to WBS.....remember that sleepy village on the A303 where residents try to go about their daily business?   One of the residents, nosed up to the the junction with the A303 and High Street, to find the usual queue mainly east bound at this time.  A knight of the road in a blue car stopped and signalled for her to join the traffic in front of him.   Our local driver made one last check west bound before preparing to pull into the east bound traffic when....BANG!!    Unfortunately, those behind were clearly not paying attention, and failed to re-act quickly enough and so we have the nose to tail situation of a silver car hitting the blue car, then another....BANG!!   This is when an HGV ran into the rear of the silver car.

Fortunately, on this occassion there were no injuries, just lots of bent metal!!    The driver of the silver car must have been pretty shaken up, having been hit from both ends especially at the rear by the tanker which is the reason there was requirement to call out our fire brigade in the first photo of this post.


 I'm not sure how Langen's - a Dutch company carrying bulk material, were able to call out a replacement tractor unit, since there appears to be no local address on their web site, but this one arrived within two hours, to hook up the tanker section of the damaged truck, enabling the goods to continue their onward journey!!!

To prevent this happening over and over again and the hold ups on the A303 in the future, it needs to be dualled and Winterbourne Stoke by-passed.....We need the government sit up and take note, because this involved:
2 fire engins, 1 ambulance, 1 paramedic vehicle, and 1 police vehicle.   I'm wondering if, as south Wiltshire residents, is this charged to our council tax?!!!
Please sign our petition at: www.sh2.co.uk