Calls for safety improvements at Slade Road junction - your views please

COMMUNITY leaders are calling for improved road safety measures at a notorious accident black spot in Portishead.

The calls follow a crash on Thursday at just after 11 am at the junction of Coombe Road and Slade Road where a Ford Focus being driven by an elderly woman collided with an Audi.

The driver of the Focus lost control and the car ended up embedded in the fencing around the sheltered bungalows at Slade Road.

Police, fire and ambulance crews attended the scene and two women, a woman in her 40s who was trapped in the Audi and the elderly driver of the Ford Focus were both taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The road was closed for two hours while emergency crews dealt with the crash.

The accident has prompted fresh calls for traffic calming at the junction to be reviewed.

Work was carried out to the junction two years ago when the pavement was built out at Slade Road and a bollard installed on the corner.

A flashing light has also been installed half way down Avon Way warning of the crossroads ahead.

It had been hoped that build out would have made it easier for vehicles to pull out of Slade Road into Coombe Road and slow traffic travelling along Avon Way.

But the bollard has been hit on a number of occasions by motorists over the years, with many local residents branding the scheme 'useless and a waste of money.'

Now town councillor Reyna Knight has written to North Somerset Council highway engineers asking them to look again at the junction - which has seen several accidents over the years - to see if it can be improved.

Mrs Knight said: "This particular junction has been the location for a number of accidents over the years.

"We had hoped by building out the pavement and installing the bollard it would have made it safer.

"I do think these improvements have worked and helped slow traffic travelling along Avon Way.

"But it may be now that people are getting used to it being there and just negotiating it.

"I have now written to our highways department asking them to look at the junction again to see if safety in the area can be improved further."

Suggestions put forward so far include painting a mini roundabout at the crossroads.

Other suggestions include installing more warning signs and painting SLOW markings on the road in a bid to reduce traffic speeds.

Mrs Knight added: "This has always been a notorious and dangerous junction in Portishead and so far we have been unable to find a wholly successful solution to the problem.

"As Avon Way is quite a steep hill, it is quite easy for vehicles to pick up speed as they travel down there.

"With all the new developments the town is getting busier all the time, with more and more traffic, and this is an area which needs to be looked at again."