Dangerous junction (From Gazette & Herald)

Dangerous junction

THE North Yorkshire east coroner, Mr Oakley, is right to identify the Barton Hill A64 junction as a very dangerous junction. And to close the crossing, as he seems to suggest on the front page of this week's Gazette & Herald, would be cheap, quick and easy to do. But it would ultimately cause more accidents and deaths than it would prevent.

Traffic from Castle Howard and the villages to the west of the A64 will still need to cross the main road to go towards York, and to visit the villages on the eastern side. And traffic from, say, Barton-le-Willows will still want to go to Malton and to the western villages.

The effect of simply closing the Barton Hill crossing would probably be to take drivers of cars, coaches and trucks from Castle Howard and the west through Welburn to try their luck with a right turn at Welburn Lane end. This is already an even more dangerous manoeuvre than at Barton Hill; more traffic would make it worse, not to mention the impact of the increased traffic on Welburn. And I think Barton traffic may be forced to try a U-turn farther up the A64, or else travel through Malton, which would be dangerous or inconvenient, to say the least.

Moving the accidents a mile up the road is not the answer. There has to be a proper, safe crossing at Barton Hill: an underpass or overpass. It would cost money, but it would certainly save lives. And as to the money: it would surely be a small fraction of the elaborate solution to a similar problem at Copmanthorpe.

Updated: 13:19 Wednesday, May 21, 2003