Speed cut for accident blackspot

Hill on Sidmouth Road set for safety measures

Safety works to cut the speed limit on a notorious accident blackspot between Newton Poppleford and Sidmouth in a bid to save lives will take place early in the New Year.

For several years, councillors have been calling for urgent measures to ‘stop people dying’ on the accident hotspot Four Elms Hill on the A3052.

In July last year, plans were agreed to reduce the limit on the 950-metre stretch of road from 60mph to 40mph. Double white lines are also set to be introduced to prohibit overtaking, and now the safety works are now set to take place from 11 January.

Cllr Claire Wright, whose Otter Valley ward the road lies in, said: “A reduction to the national speed limit to 40mph and a doubling of the central white lines has been deemed necessary by local people for many years to reduce the number of accidents, including at least one fatality.

“The hill has been the focus of frequent accidents and at least one fatality, due to people overtaking and driving too fast. It has been an arduous and frustrating process at times but I am relieved and very happy that all our work will come to fruition next month.

“We believe that the road will be much safer with its speed limit reduced from 60mph to 40mph and unbroken double white central lines, which are more appropriate to its gradient and bends.”

Between January 2014 and January 2019 there were four recorded collisions that resulted in injury within the area currently subject to national speed limit on Four Elms Hill.

The report to the committee said that in the last five years, 50 per cent of collisions that took place on Four Elms Hill had excessive speed as a contributing factor, higher than the 21 per cent average for rural A roads in Devon.

Cllr Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for highways management, had previously said: “While most drivers are driving within the speed limit the committee recognises that speeding remains a concern to local people who live near or on that stretch of road.

“Let’s hope that these improvements will drive the message home to irresponsible motorists who fail to drive to the conditions of the road.”