SO two years after the ban on heavy goods vehicles using the Grane Road, police say they believe it has not had the effect they hoped for in reducing accidents.
However, local residents and other car drivers who regularly use the road don't want the ban lifted, and suggest that a fair number of truckers are ignoring it and not getting caught.
But if traffic is moving more smoothly and not being forced to queue behind trundling juggernauts why should the accident rate still be higher than police or anyone else would want?
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Probably for the same reason that we keep seeing awful crashes on the A675 which goes from Riley Green west of Blackburn through Abbey Village and Belmont to Bolton.
Like the Grane Road it's an old-fashioned narrowish highway with some long straight sections which have deceptive dips in them that can momentarily hide oncoming vehicles from view.
Both roads have had all kinds of warning signs and speed restrictions put on them, but nasty accidents keep on happening.
You don't have to be a traffic professional to find the causes. If you use either road for any length of time it will become blindingly obvious.
Excessive speed combined with reckless impatience - a fatal combination. If you stick on the exact speed limit it's hard to drive down either road without someone crossing an unbroken line to overtake you travelling at least 20mph faster.
I reckon they are the same people who will sail down the outside (right turn only) lane past queuing rush hour traffic (or down an empty filter left' lane) and then when they get to the junction or lights just force their way into the centre lane and go straight ahead.
You'll see them cutting people up in the mornings on Preston Old Road heading towards Witton lights or at the notorious (but hopefully not for much longer) Whitebirk roundabout.
And there are far more smart-alec drivers (offenders very seldom seem to be female) almost literally dying to get ahead of the masses in cities like Manchester, Leeds and London as any car commuter will tell you.
The trouble is as the number of cars on our roads carries on increasing (and road building is at a virtual standstill to discourage us from driving) precious little investment is going into public transport.
That makes it inevitable that we are going to see more and more of these Alpha-male maniacs.
Short of putting cameras on every junction and employing police to sit watching them for hours it's difficult to see what can be done to stop such anti-social behaviour.
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