Very sadly there has been a fatal accident at Cuddesdon Mill where a car left the road and went through a fence into the river.
The Parish Council offer their sympathy to everyone who knew the driver.
Last year, after previous accidents, a local resident had asked the Parish Council to investigate having a speed limit at the two bridges. The County Council’s Traffic and Road Safety Team decided this was not needed, mainly because they thought traffic was travelling fairly slowly at this point anyway. The County Council also considered that it would be unlikely that the police would be able to enforce a speed limit.
In the last five years the bridges have had to be repaired four times because of vehicles being driven into them and a 30 foot length of fence had to be replaced after an accident. Also, many cyclists use this road, increasing the likelihood of an accident.
After the recent fatal accident, Tim Bearder, our County Councillor, visited the location with the County Council’s Principal Traffic Schemes Officer and Thames Valley Police’s Traffic Management Officer. The police’s Collision Investigation Officer is preparing a report on the crash, giving its likely cause, although it may take a while for the report to be published. One theory suggested by the police was that the driver may have suffered a ‘medical episode’ at the wheel rather than there being a speeding or road engineering reason why she lost control.
Following the visit, it was decided that it was not necessary or appropriate to impose a local speed limit. The police said that there had been no injury collision history between Cuddesdon and the Windmill Hill junction in the last five years.
The County Council have said that, in due course, they will be making some minor improvements to the reflective marker posts on the west side of the bridges, and to the warning signs on the eastern side, by adding a bend sign underneath the existing road narrows sign.
Mike Mount
Parish Clerk
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