Swineshead

Proposals to slow down the A17 near Boston have been scaled back after questions from councillors.

A long stretch of road near East Heckington was to be reduced from 50mph to 40mph.

However, councillors were concerned that the size of the restriction was unnecessary and could leave to dangerous overtaking.

The updated 40mph zone plans are half the size of before at around 1,400 metres, and are more tightly focused around East Heckington.

When it previously came to the Planning and Regulation Committee in November, councillors said the plans needed a rethink.

Councillor Mrs Mary Austin said: “This is a major road in the East Midlands with a large amount of heavy traffic. I’m worried that once traffic leaves 40mph, all hell will break loose. Everyone is going to be jockeying to get past each other.

“With it being such a long, long stretch, there could be unforeseen consequences the moment vehicles are out.”

Speed surveys found that traffic averaged between 42 and 46 mph in the stretch.

There have been 15 accidents on that stretch of the A17 in the previous five years.

One resulted in a woman being killed when a car swerved into the opposite lane, and two more were listed as serious collisions.

Councillor Paula Ashleigh-Morris also voiced doubts at November’s committee meeting.

“I was surprised to find there were only 15 accidents resulting in injuries on this stretch in the last five years,” she said.

“We have very few good roads into Boston – this one cracks along.

“Where I live on a B road in Langrick, we’ve had considerably more accidents as HGVs head up to Immingham. This change needs a rethink.”

The revised plans will be discussed at a Lincolnshire County Council meeting on Monday, January 16.

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Video footage of an unbelievable near miss on the roads of Lincolnshire has gone viral on social media, with an overzealous car inches from a head-on collision with an HGV.

The video was uploaded on Friday, June 17 by aptly titled Facebook page Idiot UK Drivers Exposed, showing a dangerous overtake manoeuvre on the A17 near Swineshead Bridge.

Dashcam footage from inside a HGV showed another lorry travelling in the opposite direction, with headlights in the distance, before a car motors alongside and attempts to overtake.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1986200761659690&extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing

The hair-raising moment could have ended in a potentially fatal collision, with the car somehow managing to swerve out of the way of the oncoming HGV and swerve back onto the correct side of the road.

If not for evasive braking action from both lorry drivers, this incident could have had a much more tragic conclusion.

The person who uploaded the video said: “I could see around the bend that another HGV was travelling in the opposite direction, and I knew the car behind me, travelling up behind me like a rocket, could not see that another truck would be approaching.

“I decided to indicate right and brake, hoping the car driver would slow down and not pass, they still had enough time to slow down and tuck in behind me, but they didn’t. I started to brake, and so did the other truck.

“We brake harder, thinking the inevitable will happen. The driver just managed to get in. This driver would have been dead if the other trucker had not been on the ball. Why risk it!”

Lincolnshire Police launched Operation Snap in February 2021, which is an online portal for people to upload dashcam footage of potential driving offences in the county as part of a nationwide crackdown effort.

You can report a driving offence via Operation Snap on the Lincolnshire Police website. Please note that this cannot be used to report crashes, and you should call 101 in this instance.

Councillors have approved the reduction of a speed limit on a dangerous section of the A52 in Swineshead in an attempt to improve safety.

Lincolnshire County Council’s Planning and Regulation Committee gave the go-ahead on Monday for officers to take the speed between the staggered crossroads at The Drayton and Blackjack Road from 60mph to 50mph.

A report before councillors said there had been six reported injury accidents in the area in the past five years, including two fatalities.

A number of objections to the plans had called for the speed to be reduced further and extended to the nearby roundabout.

However, officers the reductions had to be ones “the majority of drivers will see as reasonable and therefore adhere to”.

Boston Borough Council leader and Coastal Ward Councillor Paul Skinner said he fully supported the improvement.

“Although it’s not as much as what the residents would really like, it’s either that or we site a skip on the corner of the road at this time of year,” he said.

“Anything we can do in making a reduction, I support.”

Officers said the proposed speed limit complied with policies and would improve safety.

In September, 2018, James Hurley, of Surfleet, died after pulling out of The Drayton and into the path of a lorry.

In November of that year a 20-year-old man died following a crash involving a lorry and a car full of people. Four others were injured during the incident.