‘No indication’ speed camera would have prevented accidents on black spot road in Rotherham

A petition submitted to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) calling for more safety measures on Cumwell Lane and Kingsforth Lane reached 622 signatures last year, and the council committed to reviewing the stretch.

Residents had called for an average speed camera on the road after a number of fatal accidents, but Rotherham Council says there is ‘no indication’ to suggest they would have prevented the three collisions that have been reported since September 2022.

Highways officers at Rotherham Council say they have considered introducing an average speed camera system at a cost of £120,000, but there is ‘no indication’ it would have ‘directly prevented’ the three crashes reported since September 2022, ‘given the recorded contributory factors’.

A report to RMBC’s Improving Places Select Commission said inquests into two fatal road traffic collisions on Kingsforth Lane ‘have not identified any further highway intervention measures at this time or questioned the structural integrity of the highway’.

A 51-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services after the crash in December, and a 30-year-old man also died when he was thought to have lost control of his car on a bend and crashed into a nearby field in February 2022.

Councillor Simon Ball urged Rotherham Council to “go further” with safety measures last year after the council reduced the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph, resurfaced part of Kingsforth Lane, introduced rainline road markings and installed reflective verge marker posts through several bends.