Safer roads or better drivers? Does more need to be done on Cornwall’s deadliest road?
The A38 is England’s longest running two digit A-road reaching a grand total of 470km or 292 miles. It starts on the Eastern side of Bodmin and continues up North until it reaches the town of Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire. It has been deemed by many locals as one of the deadliest roads in England, but the main stretch that people are most concerned about is the section between the Carminow Cross roundabout in Bodmin and Exeter, with the most road traffic collisions (RTC’s) happening along the Glynn Valley up until Trerulefoot. In an interview taken in the early parts of 2019, Sheryll Murray who is the MP for South East Cornwall said “This road is dangerous. Hardly a week goes by when there is not an accident, often with loss of life. I had a lady in my office who had comforted a lady who died on the roadside. Action needs to be taken.” However, local resident Carl Necker who owns a property along the Glynn Valley and who has been a regular commuter on the road for over 3 decades countered this by pointing out that driver education is the way forward and that “ far too many drivers fail to comply with the rules of the road”
As shown in the Bar Graphs below, between the years 1994 and 2016, the total number of collisions on the stretch of road between Bodmin and Exeter reached a total of 4069, with an average of 185 RTC’s per year. From the below chart, we can see that there has been a slight decrease overall from 1994 of collisions every year.
One of the reasons as to why this could be the case is from the increase in awareness on the dangers of the road. There have been many campaigns over the course of the last decade, but one of the most newly formed groups that call themselves “Safe38” are seen to be making the biggest impact. Founded in 2018, their three main objectives are to demand improvements to the existing road in the short-term, to campaign for the delivery of a high quality A38 in Cornwall, and to reflect the interests of local communities throughout the possible road improvement areas ensuring that the A38 trunk road is made safer and “fit for purpose”. However, resident Mr Necker said “the constant campaigning for funding for a bypass is completely unrealistic and unachievable and time and effort would be better extended for campaigning to improve driver behaviour, rather than unaffordable complete structural remodelling of this trunk road”.
The graph below suggests that the casualty count has remained in a neutral correlation with no significant change in the overall rate of casualties since 1994 but follows a similar pattern to collisions. The data stops in 2016 due to the fact that the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic could hamper results due to the lockdowns and lack of people driving on the roads.
Locals are pushing for a bypass between Carkeel and Trerulefoot and have been doing so since the early 1960’s when the famous Tamar Bridge opened. A dual carriageway road would provide many more benefits than a single carriageway. There would be increased room to manoeuvre, decreasing the risk of an accident. Cornwall is one of the country’s busiest places in the summer and sees a huge influx of people arriving from all over the UK, with up to 850,000 arriving in the hot months after Spring. Dualling the road would provide more safety for those travelling and for those living in the local communities.
There are two trunk roads that head into Cornwall, the A38 and the A30. The A30 has received huge amounts of funding to become a dual carriageway, but the Council are reluctant to apply the same to the stretch between Carkeel and Trerulefoot. In a previous interview, the Lostwithiel and Lanreath Liberal Democrats councillor Colin Martin said “I’m absolutely appalled that the Conservative Government has ruled out funding any safety measures on the A38 until at least 2030. This road has one of the highest accident rates in the county and is in desperate need of critical safety improvements. National Highways are spending £24 billion on road improvements elsewhere, but can’t even find the cash for average speed cameras or a pelican crossing in South East Cornwall.”
Local homeowner Carl noted that “ A considerable amount of money has already been spent by both central and local government. These have included the redesign of crawler lanes, improved pedestrian crossing facilities, clearer signage and road markings, a reduction in overall and village speed limits, the introduction of enforcement cameras and media safety campaigns to better educate road users”. He went on to add “Any reasonable cost-benefit analysis will indicate that any benefits from slightly reducing the accident rate are far outweighed by the extensive cost involved in constructing such a road (financially it is likely to stretch into the billions of pounds and environmentally it will require the destruction of hundreds of hectares of woodland and farmland). Central government are presiding over the largest national debt compared to GDP since the end of the second world war and local council have budget deficits and far higher priorities to contend with”.
