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Delays as woman killed on crossing
Tuesday 22nd January 2008, 11:45AM GMT.
A pedestrian was killed by a car on a pelican crossing in Wolverhampton today, causing rush hour delays on one of the city’s busiest main roads.
The woman, who has not yet been named, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics after being hit by a Ford Focus on Penn Road, near Tesco Express, at 7.40am.
A stretch of the carriageway heading towards the city was expected to closed for most of the morning for investigations.
Sgt Jon Jackson, of Bilston Street police station, said it was not yet known whether the woman had crossed when the green man was showing that it was safe.
Helen Davies, a sales assistant at the Co-operative food store opposite the scene of the tragedy, said: “At first I thought it was just two cars that bumped each other but when I saw the ambulance a few minutes later I knew it must be serious.”
The 20-year-old, of Rutland Avenue, Penn, added: “The traffic was backed up for quite a way afterwards but the police turned up quite quickly and started diverting drivers.”
Norman Sheldon, a 62-year-old decorator from Sedgley, who was working in a vacant shop opposite, said: “The amount of traffic tailed back at first was unreal.”
A staff member from Lloyd’s Pharmacy, who asked not to be named, said: “I offered to help when I saw what had happened but the ambulance was on its way.”
Traffic was being diverted off Penn Road from the Pinfold Lane junction and sent through Warstones Road. Motorists heading out of the city were not affected.
Police are urging witnesses to contact the road policing unit at Bilston Street on 0845 113 5000.
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Perhaps the Council / police will do something to curb the speed of motorists travelling along this stretch of road.
This section of road is a speeding nightmare and it’s worse with traffic travelling from Wolverhampton, especially on the section from the Hollybush pub to the Lloyd Hill island.
The speed camera signs are there, it’s a pity that there’s no actual cameras!
This has been an accident waiting to happen. It’s a shame that somebody has died.
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It is sad what as happened and my heart goes out to the family for their tragic loss.
I live on the Penn Road and hope more camara’s will be installed soon.
The Penn Road can be a race track for some drivers, but i can say that about any road in this country. Speeding is everywhere, so accidents will always happen. Is there a car driver reading this that can actually put their hand up and declare that they have never gone over the speed limit?
I doubt it.
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And what do speed cameras accomplish?
Speed does NOT kill… bad driving/jay walking pedestrians do…
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Having lived on the Penn Road for 23 years I saw many accidents and bumps relating to speed. However, I would argue that it is only a very small proportion of drivers that do STUPID speeds along that stretch. I would argue that Warstones Road suffers more from speeding issues than the Penn Road (and remember, that road isn’t build to handle that volume of traffic). A lot of the problems going in to town are caused by parked cars and drivers having to change lanes (some of whom haven’t learned to use mirrors!), and also drivers not using indicators properly. However, I have to say there are a SIGNIFICANT number of pedestrians that cross the road at inappropriate places when there are plenty of crossings.
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My heart goes out to the family and all her friend x
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No3 – The speed cameras on the Penn Road just after Pennhouse Avenue seem to have the desired affect of keeping the traffic down to 30MPH so maybe they might keep the traffic to the 40MPH speed limit on the dual carrageway section. I generally think that the cameras are a money spinner but if they have one use, besides keeping the speed down, it’s that they might catch the bad driver and make him think about changing his ways before he kills the jay walking pedestrian.
No 4 – You are correct, Warstones Road is also a speeding hazard. Regarding your comment about crossing places, by Springhill shops there are no crossing places and you do take your chance when crossing the road at that point
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I live within 100m of the shops and over the last 25 years I know of 6 people who have been killed on this crossing for various reasons, so i think we need a balanced view. I know that people drive far too fast on this stretch of the A449 and people try and cross when there is a gap in the traffic. However, until we know whether the lights were on red or not dont be too quick to judge who was at fault.
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Put an English person behind the wheel of a car, that is an accident waiting to happen.
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I live the other end of the woodlands walk and my wife and kids regularly cross the road at that point. We both know that those lights often do not work properly, whether the green man doesn’t come on or the wait sign doesn’t illuminate. Additionally the Pinfold Lane lights often have bulbs out and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case again. It happens far too often around Wolverhampton, unlike any other place I have lived. However to knock a J-walker over at that point means in my opinion that the driver was not paying attention or going too fast. There is plenty of time to see someone and stop even if you are going over the speed limit a little.
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Steve speed cameras make money they do not prevent accidents but LA’s want to install as many as possible using any excuse to get new ones installed
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Andy obviously we can’t judge yet if the lights were on red but in my experience as a predestrian far too many drivers jump red lights just watch any set of lights for a few minutes.
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I agree with all the previous comments. I would just like to add that it is a complete nightmare trying to cross there when the lights are not working because of the racing of some drivers.Also I have seen many pedestrians running into the path of vehicles when trying to catch a bus . Kind regards to everyone affected by this tragedy.
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Steve, Speed is a facet of bad driving. The argument you use is trapped out time and time again by bad drivers who ignore spped limits.
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I feel the whole surrounding area requires reviewing by Wolverhampton Council. There are many dangerous zones in and around the Penn area. What many drivers forget is that Penn is not just a residential area, but is surrounded by many Primary and Secondary schools where children frequently use these roads. We desperately need more ‘Go Slow’ warnings whether it be in the way of speed camera’s or road humps, it should be a priority. To all those drivers who use and sometimes abuse our roads as a cut through to work. What is more important: getting to work in extra fast time or avoiding another terrible tragedy, such as today. LIFE IS PRECIOUS, PLEASE SLOW DOWN – TAKE NOTE OF ROAD RESTRICTIONS – IS IT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK?
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The crossing is situated in a dip in the road with a bend coming before and a bend coming after. Furthermore it is a four lane section at this point. I suppose the speed of a vehicle has some significance in such an accident, but there also appears to be a topographical cause. Have the engineers who calculate the position of the crossing not done their homework?
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There are a number of answers for what happened,
1. the driver was speeding
2. the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
3. the pedestrian crossed whenthe red man was showing.
You can’t blame anyone until all 3 of these have been investigated.
But i agree with most that the penn road can be a dangerous road especially during rush hour. If the council decide to do something about it, they should put more speed camaras along the road, to catch thelunatics that have a need for speed.
But the problem is that everywhere in the world there is a problem with drivers speeding, falling asleep at the wheel and pedestrians crossing when they shouldn’t.
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This accident has really affected me. I think we should all only assume that this was indeed an accident and I feel for everybody involved in this tragedy. It is a dangerous stretch of road especially at that time in the morning where drivers are trying to overtake the traffic to save a minute or 2.
I drove past practically seconds after this happened. I was praying for her to be alive all morning, I was so upset when I heard that she died.
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i take it Ike is not english then, everybody id speculating that it was a speeding driver.There could be number of reasons this accident happended. My heart goes out to the family at this dreadful time.
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IF YOU DON’T LIKE HOW THE ENGLISH DRIVE “IKE” LEAVE AND TAKE YOUR FAMILY WITH YOU THE ROADS WOULD BE SAFER
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What is also annoying are the lazy people who use the nearby Tesco cashpoint and cannot be bothered to use the supermarket car park. Instead they illegally park in the filter lane for cars entering the store. What’s the problem with walking a few feet to get their money out? They also cause an obstruction for cars coming out of Tesco.
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does anyone know who it was
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Has anyone stopped to think how the driver might be feeling if it wasn’t his / her fault and this women who was killed just crossed without looking?
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The traffic was moving quite slowly when this tragic accident happened so speeding is NOT an issue here. Why do people assume that it was a speeding motorist? Find out the facts before delving into an issue that has nothing to do with this incident.
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Quite slowly does not neccessarily mean slow enough. With little facts about the incident available I think it is ok to assume speed or someone not paying attention whilst driving was the problem. That is unless the Victim was trying to get hit or visually impaired. Has the lady been named yet, i see more flowers there today. Good on all the people who beep the jaywalkers who persist in running across despite this tragedy. Last night it was an idiot, in the dark at rush hour wearing a black jacket running out in front of me.
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