Dangerous junction

We have a major problem with a local road junction that will soon result in a road traffic accident, and injury or even death.

There is a pedestrian refuge in Canterbury Road, near the junction with Charles Street. The position of the refuge seems to make it difficult for some longer vehicles to turn left from Canterbury Road into Charles Street.

Over the last few weeks, we have recorded several videos of vehicles (all of them PCL lorries) driving dangerously and illegally at this junction. What you can see is the lorry driving down the wrong side of the road into the oncoming traffic, or looping all the way round the junction, simply to be able to make the turn:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EastCliffPanel

The major culprit at the moment is PCL - these are the delivery lorries for the Herne Bay branch of Iceland. (Iceland do not have a direct email address, so I have contacted them through their website.) It is worth noting that dustcarts also have problems at this junction, as do the heavy plant vehicles associated with local building work.

As you will see on the YouTube videos that we have recorded, the PCL lorries repeatedly carry out dangerous manoeuvres. This recently almost resulted in a head-on collision, which you can see in the most recent video:

Kent Highways have told me that this junction isn't a high enough priority, as it doesn't have a crash history. It is blindingly obvious that continued inaction will all but guarantee that it will have a "crash history". I've sent them a link to the videos. I've also sent a link to PCL, the Police, and our county councillors.

Let's hope they sort something out before someone gets hurt.

Garage fire in Charles Street

Clouds of smoke drifted across Herne Bay, and at first it wasn't entirely clear where the smoke was coming from. After criss-crossing town, I found the Fire Brigade doing their good stuff at one of the garages backing on to Charles Street.

A car was destroyed when a blaze ripped through a Herne Bay garage. Two fire crews rushed to the workshop, near Rodney’s Sports Bar, at 3.30pm 2nd Feb. An overturned electrical heater appears to have started the blaze, which quickly spread to the eaves and roof. A Mini car was destroyed.

Crew manager Paul Austin explained the fire had already taken hold by the time they arrived. He said:

“We had to make a forced entry to both the front and the back of the garage as smoke was already blowing out into the street making visibility quite difficult. We also punctured a hole in the roof to increase the ventilation. That also gave us a chance to fight the flames from above as well as below.

The freezing temperatures meant we also called out the highways officers to grit the road as the water we’d used was turning to ice almost immediately.”

Crews had the fire under control by 4.30pm.

kentonline 3rd Feb 2012

One-way dangers

HB Times 16th Sep 2010