M27/A31 Westbound

Completely screwed after Ower and Ringwood due to two serious accidents. No point heading through forest either as the Salisbury Ringwood road is also chocka

Not a day to be heading west...

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10249242.Girl__16__dies_as_crash_shuts_motorway_and_major_route___live_updates/

sad.

That junction has been a nightmare for as long as I can remember....to think of a 16 year old on a scooter trying to negotiate it in the dark fills me with dread. Thoughts are with the family.

Horrible, horrible junction.

Personally I wouldn't want to be on a scooter anywhere on the A31 let alone at that junction...

Terrible set of junctions combined with idiots driving way too fast. I have done that myself before and I feel sick about. My thoughts go out to her family. It's ever parent's nightmare.

Awful. Questions need to be asked about that road, its a motorway in everything but name, allowing scooters on there is crazy.

I had a bit of a facebook rant about it taking me 2 hours to get to poole this morning not knowing the poor kid had died.

An hours inconvenience is nothing compared to what the poor family are going through.

I drive that junction regularly (couple of times a week) and I make the occasional mistake in timing the speed of oncoming traffic. It's bad enough in daylight in a car with a bit of poke, beggars belief trying to join on a restricted moped.

Either they drop that section to 50mph, close the back way out of Ringwood, close the pub, or close the garage. There's just too much to cope with, so easy to miss something in a blind spot.

Normally I'm not in favour of speed limits and cameras on such roads but that junction is so badly designed it needs one. I guess it comes down to policing, its very difficult to police the A31 due to the lack of exits and safe places to pull over speeders, as a result its as much of a racetrack as the A303 & A34 - I would say a lot of people speed up once they leave the M27.

Putting aside the personal tragedy for a second and talking accidents in general , why are our roads closed for so long after accidents? This one was around half eight last night. Want can the Police and/or investigators hope to find at 11am this morning that they couldn't find/measure/photograph within a few hours last night.

And if you feel strongly about it, tell Desmond Swayne (the local MP): http://www.writetothem.com/write

Public opinion can and does make a difference in cases like this.

I always thought that junction was an accident waiting to happen, people drive like idiots on that road.

It seems to me that nowadays the cops rely on roadside cameras to get heir quota of speeding convictions which means as long as you slow down for them you can drive like a maniac safe in the knowledge you will more than likely not get caught. There certainly seems to me that there are less traffic police on the roads.

Putting aside the personal tragedy for a second and talking accidents in general , why are our roads closed for so long after accidents? This one was around half eight last night. Want can the Police and/or investigators hope to find at 11am this morning that they couldn't find/measure/photograph within a few hours last night.

I believe that Police initially treat all fatal crashes as a suspicious death and will try and investigate to make sure it was 'only' an accident, rather than a premeditated murder, dressed up to look like an accident. To this end I would assume they would prefer to gather evidence during daylight rather than at night.

The A31 in general past Ringwood has just got worse and worse. My parents place is on Southampton rd and backs on to the A31. The speed people hack along there, and the number of accidents is just stupid. They have been complaining for ages about the noise getting worse as more cars use the route, and the speeds are kept at 70-80 mph. Why it can't be restricted to 50 past Ringwood I don't know- and that stupid junction by the Fish Inn needs to be sorted out ....Thoughts are with the girls family - and I just wish they would sort something out there soon..

Considering the twist and go for a 16 year old would be restricted to 30mph and that 4 lane stretch is 70mph, it would create havoc if the scooterist wanted to change lanes, the contrasting speeds of the vehicles is too vast for that part of the road.

Condolences to all affected by this tragedy.

As a motorcycle rider and by my user name obviously a user of this stretch they need to close the fish entrance . However where this happened is the Matchams, Verwood turn off, that needs sorting both east and west.

No need for the Fish Entrance /Exit to go onto the A31, just makes a ratrun thru town, the garage I've never used it. Verwood slips need sorting and it all got worse with Ashley Heath no longer being a roundabout to slow the flow.

Easiest solution, a series of traffic lights, before the flyover, after the flyover and maybe for the slip roads, that would slow the traffic, doesn't need much, but its the way to slow traffic which isnt slowed all the way from the M25 in reality .

Really sad seeing the kids at the side of the road, lost my brother on a bike in 1986 and still hurts today so best wishes to the family.

As a motorcycle rider and by my user name obviously a user of this stretch they need to close the fish entrance . However where this happened is the Matchams, Verwood turn off, that needs sorting both east and west.

 

No need for the Fish Entrance /Exit to go onto the A31, just makes a ratrun thru town, the garage I've never used it. Verwood slips need sorting and it all got worse with Ashley Heath no longer being a roundabout to slow the flow.

 

Easiest solution, a series of traffic lights, before the flyover, after the flyover and maybe for the slip roads, that would slow the traffic, doesn't need much, but its the way to slow traffic which isnt slowed all the way from the M25 in reality .

 

Really sad seeing the kids at the side of the road, lost my brother on a bike in 1986 and still hurts today so best wishes to the family.

Guess we both know this road pretty well...the four lane stretch east and west is a nightmare, and I am sure a more sensible option exists...can't help thinking a lot if the issues stem from the origins of failing to properly bypass ringwood back in the day, leading to issues with the local rOad system round matches and verwood as you say....

From the pov of a bike rider myself, so many car drivers haven't got a clue that you even exist. If you allow for the fact that the poor girl would have been riding a restricted 49cc, moped she would have been dangerously slow on an already dangerous stretch of road.

Yes, the road needs sorting, but personally I think letting kids without full driving licences ride mopeds is a recipe for disaster. Given the way bikers get treated by car drivers anyway, bikers need more road awareness than car drivers, not less.

Easiest solution, a series of traffic lights, before the flyover, after the flyover and maybe for the slip roads, that would slow the traffic, doesn't need much, but its the way to slow traffic which isnt slowed all the way from the M25 in reality .

That stretch is at a stand still most evenings as it is ..... put traffic lights in & the tailbacks will be back to Rownhams. Reduce the speed limit & try to increase the length of sliproads are the only answers as far as I can see?

From the pov of a bike rider myself, so many car drivers haven't got a clue that you even exist. If you allow for the fact that the poor girl would have been riding a restricted 49cc, moped she would have been dangerously slow on an already dangerous stretch of road.

 

Yes, the road needs sorting, but personally I think letting kids without full driving licences ride mopeds is a recipe for disaster. Given the way bikers get treated by car drivers anyway, bikers need more road awareness than car drivers, not less.

A lot of bike riders don't do themselves any favours either - works both ways. (Perhaps a debate for another thread as don't wish to send this one off topic)

Just needs a 50mph limit from the bottom of Poulner hill to Ashley Heath, enforced with average speed cameras, or the closure of the Fish Inn slip. The other factor in all this is that its a tourist route so there is perhaps a higher number of drivers unfamiliar with the road, particularly at the weekend.

Often wondered why they can't widen that 50 yard stretch westbound between the Fish Inn slip and the Verwood/Matchams turn, you could then retain the slip.