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Call for changes to A90 after pile ups
A series of crashes on the A90 dual carriageway at Portlethen has prompted local Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Mollison to call for further investigations to see if there is a common cause.
He explained: “The recent crashes have caused huge tail-backs on the A90 as morning commuters try to get to work. The delays have been horrendous. Thankfully there have been no fatalities or serious injuries.
“However, accidents keep happening at the flyover to Badentoy and Asda. In one crash, a five-car pile-up caused eight miles of tailbacks during rush hour on January 7. Then for a second time in 48 hours, commuters to Aberdeen faced more traffic chaos when three vehicles were in a crash on the northbound A90 at Portlethen.
“The flyover and its access roads were fine when they were built, but I understand they are not at today’s standards. The sightlines and the merge lanes do not meet today’s more exacting criteria.
“There’s more traffic and everyone is in a rush. Although some work has been done recently at the roundabout at the entrance to the Badentoy industrial estate, is it sufficient?
“I have asked the police and Transport Scotland – who are responsible for the A90 – to see if there is any common link. Too many accidents are happening there for it just to be coincidence.
“One Portlethen constituent told me that she is very worried about the number of accidents happening at the flyover on an almost daily basis during the morning rush hour. She feels people are driving too fast and the sliproad is too short. Her suggestion is for the speed limit to be reduced to 40mph at the morning rush hour on the northbound carriageway. I am not so sure as that may cause other problems, but I have asked the police and Transport Scotland to consider her suggestion.”
We took to our Facebook page to find out how residents who commute to Aberdeen find the A90 between Stonehaven and Aberdeen and whether they feel that changes should be made.
We received a big response on the issue and here are a few of your comments:
“People don’t give themselves enough time and if they bothered to look further ahead at the road accidents might be avoided.” David Anderson
“People just need to read the highway code again. Most crashes have been cause by incompetent drivers. I was just about taken out twice on different roundabouts in Aberdeen, because of other people drifting into our lane and not looking.” Nikolle Allardice
“Folk need to stop speeding down the off road think making the slip road longer would help loads.” Iain J Wightman
“I emailed BEAR a couple of weeks ago and they said they would look into the issue of traffic entering the A90 from Portlethen northbound but they didn’t have any evidence that the amount of accidents was unusual!!! Must be based in Glasgow! I urge anyone here to write to BEAR and get on their case. My wording was along the lines of “when traffic entering the A90 there are occasions, especially during rush-hour, when the options are 1. to pull-out in to the fast lane in to the path of on-coming vehicles 2. brake suddenly so that the cars behind you have to slam on their brakes causing a hazard 3. hit the car entering the A90”. Fortunately I have only had to execute options 1 & 2 thus far!!!” Kenny MacLeod
“A combo of more careful drivers and a longer slip lane. Building the new village at Elsick would be a huge mistake as this stretch of dual carriageway proves it can’t cope with more traffic” Steven Cross
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Weather for Montrose
Thursday 23 May 2013
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