Speed limit call for A228
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Tighter speed limits are planned for a notorious stretch of the 4228 in Kent following a series of accidents involving trucks.
Over the past 16 years 22 people have died on the narrow, winding route which links the M2 with Thamesport at Grain. In the latest incident a truck from Securicor Omega Container Logistics narrowly missed a house near Hoo and rolled over, leaving the road closed for 14 hours,
Medway Council wants the
speed limit on the road to be reduced from 60mph to either 40 or SOmph as an interim measure but it says work to upgrade a six-mile stretch into a dual carriageway might not start before 2002.
But John McCarthy,
deputy manager of Securicor's Grain depot, is doubtful whether the proposed limits will make any difference: "People know they are not going to be pulled in anyway because the road is not policed properly," he says. Councillor Richard Wozencroft, chairman of the council's transport committee, says the death of a lorry driver last year demonstrates the need for extreme caution when using the road.
"He had some children in the cab and there was a suggestion he was trying to stop one of them opening the door. The road is totally unforgiving. Minor lapses of concentration which would not matter on other roads have extreme consequences on the 4228."