SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: MP to meet with Transport Minister to discuss Ilminster Bypass safety

SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: MP to meet with Transport Minister to discuss Ilminster Bypass safety

TRANSPORT Minister Andrew Jones is to meet with local MP Marcus Fysh next week to discuss the safety of the existing Ilminster Bypass.

The main A303 road around Ilminster has been the scene of countless accidents and a number of fatalities over the years – with a succession of incidents in recent weeks including this afternoon (Tuesday, July 28, 2015) which has seen two elderly people taken to hospital with broken bones following a two-vehicle collision. (See link to separate story below).  SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: MP to meet with Transport Minister to discuss Ilminster Bypass safety

The latest person to die as a result of an accident on the bypass was 43-year-old Yeovil mother of two Trudi McHugh, a medical secretary at Yeovil District Hospital. She passed away on July 18 just a few days after being involved in a car crash on the bypass, while earlier this month 28-year-old Laura Barbosa-Garrido from Spain also died following a three-vehicle crash close to the bypass.

PHOTO - TOP: The Ilminster Bypass.

Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh, who represents Ilminster at Westminster, has listened to calls from local people asking for there to be an urgent review of safety on the bypass.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh.

He will be meeting with Andrew Jones, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Transport, in the first week of August at the bypass to discuss possible solutions.

“I have been asking for updates about possible safety work on the bypass section and would like to bring forward solutions if there are any that make sense,” said Mr Fysh. “The Minister is coming to look at it with me in the first week of August.

“I will certainly be telling the Minister and Highways England about the dangers of the bypass in the current configuration.”SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: MP to meet with Transport Minister to discuss Ilminster Bypass safety

There are large and complex plans in the pipeline to dual the entire A303 – although much of the early preparatory work is looking at the proposed Stonehenge tunnel and nothing will happen until after public consultation in 2017.

There are also plans to improve the A358 from Ilminster to the M5 junction at Taunton and the A30 from Southfields Roundabout at Ilminster down into Devon.

But it would appear that works for the Ilminster Bypass are further down the pecking order – especially after the Highways Agency said three years ago that it was “one of the safest sections of the A303.”

Mr Fysh has vowed that he will ask the Transport Minister to look more closely at the bypass given its recent surge of tragic incidents.

People have spoken about dualling the entire bypass with more speed cameras and increased patrols by traffic police.

“The long straight on the Ilminster Bypass is particularly scary,” said Mr Fysh. “I wouldn’t consider squeezing in an extra lane unless there was a central barrier and a 50mph limit like you see in narrow semi-urban dual carriageways with no hard shoulder.”

News of today’s serious accident will only heighten calls for action to be taken.

RELATED STORY: ELDERLY COUPLE TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER TWO-VEHICLE COLLISION (JULY 28, 2015): http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2015/07/28/south-somerset-news-elderly-couple-taken-to-hospital-after-ilminster-bypass-crash/ .

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