A resident is pleading for action to make a 'nightmare junction' safer after cars keep crashing into his property causing damage running into hundreds of pounds.
Andy Chadwick lives in Adlington, on Westhoughton Street with the junction of Rawlinson Lane.
One crash hit the gas main at the side of the property.
Andy has contacted the Parish Council for help and also Lancashire County Council to make the Rawlinson Lane junction safer, including the suggestion of traffic lights or a barrier, both of which have been rejected by the Lancashire County Council.
Andy said: “The cars are flying along here, there’s been a crash nearly every couple of weeks.
“The site could do with speed cameras to help slow down the traffic and give people a chance to leave the junction.
“There’s lots of people walking and walking their dogs down this route, they don’t have a good chance to get across the junction in time as cars are flying at them”
“Lancashire County Council couldn’t put up traffic lights without taking down an old telephone pole next to the junction and they are unable to as they remain unclear about who owns this pole.”
Andy says that the county council has also rejected the idea to install restraint barriers leading onto the junction.
In the six months, Andy has had two cars hit his property which damaged the the wall and window of his house, costing hundreds of pounds worth of damage.
The Parish Council has flagged the issue of accidents at the junction to the police, the Crime Commissioner and Highways over the last nine months in a bid for improvements to be made.
In an email to Andy the Parish Council stated: “The Parish Council has been advised that it is only when a person is actually hurt that the accident is recorded in the police/highway’s authority database and that the records are kept for five years.”
It added that recent planning permission for industrial units just off Rawlinson junction risk “making the junction even more dangerous”.
In May, Lancashire County Council disclosed plans to put a proposed safety scheme at the junction of Rawlinson Lane and Westhoughton Road.
But since then there was a second collision involving Andy’s property following a ‘domino effect’ between three vehicles.
Parish Councillor, Kim Snape said: "This junction has been an issue for the community long before I became a council member.
"Lancashire Council have never took it as seriously as they should do and most people acknowledge if the speed was reduced at the junction there would be a lot less accidents.
"It's just become busier and busier. Cars coming out of the junction don't have a good view of the road due to the telephone poles obstructing people's views."
The junction is said to be confusing with drivers not knowing who has right of way and have their vision obstructed by the telephone poles.
Andy said: “The work on the house needs to be done imminently, my insurance has already risen from £350 to £550 and I’m worried how far this will go as the next payment could push it over £700.
“I’m stuck now with a home with a mortgage on it that has become worthless.”
“How seriously does a person have to be injured for this to be taken seriously? Would the prevention of accidents not be a more humane response?”
A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "When looking into requests for a speed camera or other road safety measures, the council reviews police road collision data and the number of recorded injury collisions is taken into account before any locations for road safety interventions are considered.
"The county councils' budgets and resources for road safety related schemes are prioritised toward locations where there are regular patterns of injury collisions that can be attributed to some element of the road layout, or where clear influence on driver behaviour can be managed by highway interventions. This is in line with the council's agreed service offer.
"Our current priority is to target our limited resources at locations with a proven road safety issue that will contribute to the improvement of the wider highway network.
"However, following concerns from residents, we have investigated the collision history of this location and undertaken a speed assessment, which resulted in some temporary signage being installed along Rawlinson Lane.
"We will continue to monitor this location and will consider whether further road safety measures are needed."
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