ANOTHER motorist has died on a notorious stretch of the A1079 – the second in the space of three months.
Robert Cartwright (50) from Old Mill Close in Market Weighton, was pronounced dead at the scene on Friday evening following the collision between Hayton and Shiptonthorpe.
The incident happened at 6.30pm when the man’s grey Suzuki vehicle, which h
ad been travelling in the direction of Market Weighton, collided with a Toyota heading the opposite way.
The Suzuki had been flipped on to its side close to the turn off for Thorpe Le Street.
The driver of a silver BMW, which had been travelling in the same direction as the Suzuki before the collision, was arrested at the scene and bailed pending further inquiries. Police are still appealing for witnesses.
In February, Market Weighton man David Boulton (64) also died on the stretch between Hayton and Shiptonthorpe after he collided with a vehicle from the opposite direction.
This smash came just a week after Shiptonthorpe resident, Lynda Hornsey, warned drivers about the dangers of this part of the A1079.
She herself had been in a crash last year when a lorry ploughed into her car as she waited to turn off the A1079, leaving her with a shattered ankle.
She said: “I’d just been coming back from physio when we saw what had happened, it just brought it all back. It’s another tragedy.
“Something needs to be done to help traffic when it goes back to a single lane from a dual carriageway.
Safety campaigner Grahame Hicks, from Pocklington, agrees that measures and better warning systems need to be in place along parts of the A1079.
On behalf of the Action Access A1079 group, to which he is chairman, he responded to recent claims that driver errors account for many accidents.
He said: “We think it is important to point out that poor road design and inadequate capacity – as well as poor driving – are major factors in causing accidents.
“If accidents were only caused by bad drivers then you would expect them to occur all over the place, but in fact – as with the recent fatal accident on 2 May – accidents seem to happen most frequently at certain points along the road.
“We believe that the local authorities have a duty of care to ensure that the potential for accidents is designed out of the A1079, or measures taken to reduce the effect of accidents.”
