The father of accident survivor Simon Weston has backed calls to remove access points that allow cars to make a U-turn on the A350.
William Weston, of The Causeway in Chippenham, is supporting the campaign led by Wiltshire councillor Bill Douglas after Gareth Jones of Calne was killed in a collision with a lorry that is thought to have done a U-turn on the A350 in July.
Mr Weston said: “We were fortunate that our son survived. Someone else was not so fortunate.”
Mr Weston’s son Simon, now 39, hit a car on the road while trying to avoid another vehicle making a U-turn on the road. The vehicle stopped briefly and then drove away in June 2000.
Mr Weston said: “He still carries the physical and mental scars of the accident, but luckily he can get on with his life and go to work.
“Both myself and my wife have been pushing for a change for many years, and we hoped that there wouldn’t need to be a fatality to prove us right. However, sadly this young chap died because of the failings of the road.”
There are eleven gaps on the A350 to allow access to houses and fields on either side of the road.
Mr Weston said: “I feel I’ve done all that I can do to fight this for a while.
“We have worked and fought to get the gaps closed, and we did stop for a while in 2004 when the barriers went up.
“It seems that it’s more important to make it easy for farmers to get to their fields quickly then to promote a safer road for everyone. I have recommended that people use the roundabouts on either end, but it seems like that’s too difficult.”
Mr Weston has written to Wiltshire County Council, MP James Gray and even the Prime Minister to ask for the gaps to be closed.
“People come off that motorway and keep driving down the bypass at the same pace,” he said. “I think the gaps just encourage bad driving. I don’t know what to do next to make the powers that be listen.”
Coun Douglas, the council’s Chippenham Area Board member with responsibility for road safety, said: “Mr Weston has received no answers yet, and we’re looking for answers as to why the gaps are still there.
“There are 11 openings altogether. There are four that are the most concerning, and we are looking to get ‘No U-turn’ signs for each of these as a matter of urgency. At the Area Board meeting on September 13 we are going to ask once again that the four largest spaces are blocked off immediately.”
One of the four biggest spaces is at Pretty Chimneys, where Mr Jones was killed and Mr Weston seriously injured.
Mr Douglas said: “Mr Weston started campaigning ten years ago. Now it’s ten years later and he is still up against it. We hope and believe that the Area Board will support us, and that we can get the necessary funding and support to make this happen.”
