A69 lorry crash homeowner calls for 20mph and weight limit

The lorry overturned on the A69 near Warwick Bridge at just after 5pm on Friday, May 8[1], striking a property close to the carriageway and prompting a full road closure between Junction 43 of the M6 and the A689. Deborah Wearing, who jointly owns the property that was hit by the vehicle and lives there with her husband as well as her mother and father, has called for a 20mph limit to be placed on the road, as well as a weight limit on the bridge leading up to the property, to prevent a situation like this - or something worse - happening in the future. Mrs Wearing said that the front of the house has got a 'few scrapes' on it but the lorry also caused damage such as the destruction of railings in the sandstone wall outside of the property.

An overturned HGV and a police car. (Image: Cumberland Council) "The damage out there is pretty devastating to be honest," she said. "It is six artic wagons that we have had [crash] out there in that position since the early 1980s. That's not including the motorbikes, the vans, the tractors... it's numerous but six artics have been like that against my house.

"I know it's a big strong house, but how often can a house get a hit like that? And the same corner every time gets hit." Following the crash, neighbours came 'running down' and everybody in the near vicinity came to see what had happened.

Mrs Wearing said: "The noise is hard to explain, what it is like, but you know what it is like because you have heard it before." Mrs Wearing also said there was '33 trees worth of hedge' destroyed and a fence taken down, with full extent of the damage not known until an assessor arrives today (Friday, May 15) to take a look at the corner of the house which currently is still covered by a part of the hedge. Damage to part of the railings outside of the house (Image: Supplied)

The owner says she wants 'wagons off the road' and a weight limit on the bridge so they have to be redirected onto the bypass. She said: "We need a 20mph here and we need a weight limit on that bridge. People have talked about putting traffic lights on the bridge but that is not going help the matter at all."

Following the incident, a Cumberland Council[3] spokesperson said that a structural assessment was carried out on the areas of the property that were accessible, and from that it appeared that the damage to the property was 'relatively minor'[4]. "While the vehicle caused damage to boundary features at the front of the property, including railings and a wall, and disturbed nearby vegetation, the main structure of the building was not directly impacted," they said. "Internally, only limited, superficial cracking was observed in a small number of areas.

The property's solid sandstone construction appears to have withstood the impact well." But Mrs Wearing said: "For the council to say this is minor is very offending, when it is your home. It really is very upsetting.

It's distressing not just for what's happened but for the months and weeks it is going to take for this to be put right." Deborah Wearing,64, with mother Anne Stephenson, 89, who has born in the house. (Image: Supplied) The lorry on its side in the garden (Image: Supplied)

And she fears things could have been a lot worse, adding: "There was a young girl with a baby in a pushchair had only got passed my house and was in front of the neighbour's front door. If she had been 10 seconds sooner... "If she had walked a little bit slower, or stopped to talk to somebody, she would have been under that wagon.

Literally she was 10 seconds ahead of the wagon. It's not worth thinking about." Damage to the garden at the property (Image: Supplied)

A Cumberland Council spokesperson said: "There have been previous discussions between the former County Council, as highway authority, and the Department for Transport (DfT) about the potential de-trunking of the A69 and trunking of the A689. "A number of issues were considered at the time, and no agreement or further progress was reached. "The Department for Transport's contract with a private operator on the A69 ended on March 31 this year, and the route is now managed directly by National Highways.

"This change provides an opportunity for renewed discussions between the DfT and Cumberland Council.

At present, however, responsibility for any changes to speed limits, including proposals for a 20mph limit, as well as wider road safety improvements on the A69, sits with National Highways."

A National Highways spokesperson said: "We are continuing to work with the Cumbria Road Safety Partnership to keep this route as safe as possible for everyone who uses it."

References

1. ^ The lorry overturned on the A69 near Warwick Bridge at just after 5pm on Friday, May 8 (www.newsandstar.co.uk)
2. ^ Councillor calls for HGV ban along A69 at Warwick Bridge (www.newsandstar.co.uk)
3. ^ Cumberland Council (www.newsandstar.co.uk)
4. ^ the damage to the property was 'relatively minor' (www.newsandstar.co.uk)