Fatal crash reignites A17 safety campaign

7:33am Thu Mar 31, 2011

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The death of a man in a head-on crash on the A17 outside Newark Golf Club has prompted renewed calls for road-safety improvements.

Mr Neil Hunt, 59, of Lowestoft, Suffolk, died in hospital after his car was in collision with a lorry on Monday.

The lorry driver was unhurt, and the driver of another vehicle involved, a Vauxhall Astra van, suffered minor injuries.

Traffic was waiting to turn into the golf club when the accident happened, at 7.45am.

Members have been campaigning for road-safety improvements since 1989.

The operations manager, Mr Simon Collingwood, said: “We have tried and tried to improve safety at this accident blackspot.”

His father, Mr David Collingwood, the club manager, said: “This was a fatality waiting to happen. This is a very dangerous road.

“Accidents are a common occurrence, mainly shunts but sometimes involving three or four vehicles, and it is usually because drivers come upon a queue before realising that vehicles ahead of them are at a stop.

“Our members can be quite paranoid about turning right into the club yet there is a reluctance to do anything. It is financial.”

An officer with Nottinghamshire County Council highways department previously wrote to Mr Collingwood saying: “While I accept that the golf club’s access on to the A17 is not ideal, to produce any significant improvement would be extremely difficult and costly.”

Mr Collingwood wants a slip road similar to the one for access to Newark Rugby Club, or a 30mph speed restriction.

Mr Bryan Canton, of Coddington, whose daughter’s car was written off in a queue outside the club, said: “Over the past 20 years there have been numerous road accidents. We regularly hear the screech of brakes.

“Apart from the serious accidents there are numerous minor ones that would not have been reported to the police.”

Monday’s crash is being investigated. Mr Hunt suffered serious multiple injuries and was trapped for two hours in his MGF.

He was cut free by firefighters and airlifted to Lincoln County Hospital, where he later died.

Watch manager Paul Riley, of Newark Fire Station, said: “We have been to a number of crashes on that bend previously. It is a fast road and a narrow road.”

The road was closed for several hours.

The MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, who has been lobbying for safety improvements, said: “I shall now be contacting the county council to see what can be done to make it safer.”

Suzanne Heydon, group manager for highways safety at the county council, said: “We do not yet know the details of how the collision occurred, but we will look closely at the results of the investigation to see whether anything could be done to improve safety.

“This section of road has previously had a good safety record, with no injuries at all between the start of 2007 and the end of 2009.

“However, last year, there were three slight injuries, so we installed a sign before the bend to warn about possible queues from vehicles turning into the golf club.”

Witnesses to the crash should call Nottinghamshire Police on 0300 3009999.

• A spokesman for the Mr Hunt's family thanked those who stopped to help at the scene of the collision and the emergency services for their care and professionalism.

He also thanked people for the many messages of sympathy.

Mr Hunt was well known in the national boating community for his restoration of old boats and the building of new ones.

He had begun his working life as a shipwright, worked as a naval architect and more recently worked with the Coast Guard and in off-shore wind farms.