Colchester: Accident causes traffic chaos

10:36am Tuesday 28th October 2008 in News

Crash scene - the accident on Westway. (80954-2) Crash scene - the accident on Westway. (80954-2)

A serious crash caused traffic chaos in Colchester.

A silver Mini Cooper car was involved in a collision with a red Ford Fiesta ST on Westway, shortly after 9am.

The female driver of the Mini was trapped for about 30 minutes. Firefighters from Colchester fire station's green watch used specialist cutting equipment to free her.

She was taken by ambulance to Colchester General Hospital with a suspected broken arm.

Westway was closed in both directions while emergency services freed the woman and cleared up the debris.

  • Police are appealing for anyone who saw the accident to call Stanway road policing unit on 01206 762512

Comments(13)

Ozzie says...
4:05pm Tue 28 Oct 08

Once again - it looks like speed was to blame. Make that stretch of busy road 30 mph maximum like all the other approach roads in Colchester and put a speed camera along there! Needless and careless driving to blame yet again!

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friend1970 says...
5:25pm Tue 28 Oct 08

Can I ask Ozzie, was he/she there, did they see what happened? It is comments like this that start nasty vicious rumours and can cause lots of needless heartache to those involved. Thank god those involved are all ok!

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trojan3466 says...
5:30pm Tue 28 Oct 08

Ozzie, Were you there??? Did you witness the collision?? Did you witness the vehicles directly before the collision?? Have you conducted a thorough investigation into the collision and the circumstances?? If thee's a YES to any of those .. excellent, if it's a NO all round, keep your uninformed guesses and comments to yourself.

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Janus says...
7:10pm Tue 28 Oct 08

I turned up about 30 seconds after this happened , again it could have been 50% less damage if the needed amco barrier was put up .. how many more times does this need to happen before action is taken .. I have sent pictures of the crash to CBC And to our MP ..

The red car was going towards the station , the mini was coming from the station toward Balkerne hill ... The mini that got hit was the unlucky one , I spoke to the old boy who was the car in front of the mini , he thought it was going to be him. Its a slippery corner with a dodgy camber , and no amco or similar .. Interestingly , the big grey metal sheets which had been put up to stop head lights dazzling oncoming traffic on that bend have .. guess what ?.. all been knocked down

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Boris says...
1:35am Wed 29 Oct 08

The good news is that nobody was killed. And then - shock horror - the roads were blocked.
Where is the story about what happened on the main line Liverpool St to Colchester on Tuesday evening?
My train left on time at 18.48, scheduled to reach Colchester 19.50. It arrived 22.10. Reason: a shopping trolley on the line near Chelmsford, put there by vandals.
Nothing new about delays on the railway either, but the cause of the hold-up was new to me.

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Norfolk in Chance says...
8:25am Wed 29 Oct 08

Janus wrote: Interestingly , the big grey metal sheets which had been put up to stop head lights dazzling oncoming traffic on that bend have .. guess what ?.. all been knocked down.

The reason these were erected was to slow traffic as it approached the roundabout by restricting the drivers vision. It is good they have gone because they served no real purpose.

I would guess excess speed most probably had a big part to play because they, he, she, was late for work, or possibly they were using a mobile phone to text a m8t or eating Kit-Kat or having a shave or putting on lippy.....all of the above are seen to happen every single day and occasionally some get caught and others have collisions.....but all we hear is it was the road conditions and had there been Armco installed it wouldn't have happened. No roads don't cause collisions, drivers do.....and, there is no such thing as an accident! It could have been prevented.

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Hamlet says...
10:15am Wed 29 Oct 08

The accident happened when the driver of the red car lost control and came across the central reservation landing on the mini. There was absolutely nothing the mini driver could do to avoid the collison. Boris someone is laying in hospital as a result of this accident - aren't you lucky that the only thing you have to complain about is a delayed train!

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friend1970 says...
10:23am Wed 29 Oct 08

Dear Norfolk in Chance. Just to let you know, i know the driver of one of the vehicles involved and can assure you that speed and mobile phones etc were nothing to do with it and two witnesses will verify this. As stated in a comment earlier this seems to happen a lot on this road and maybe something should be done about it.
Rather than people making assumptions and upsetting people who are already upset and in shock, maybe you can all join me in wishing the lady involved a speedy recovery and be grateful nobody was killed.

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Norfolk in Chance says...
11:32am Wed 29 Oct 08

I don't wish anyone ill feeling and I hope she is soon on the mend, but
I don't take back anything I said.

You will note I didn't apportion blame to this particular collision because I have absolutely no idea who was at fault other than all collisions and RTA's can be avoided....fact!

And blaming the road as the cause is somewhat simplistic.

So Friend1970 because you happen to know one of the drivers involved that makes you an expert on the subject? And, by the tone of your comments you were not there at the time either so you only know what you have been told.

No doubt the police have taken the statements from everyone and the DPP will decide whether there is a case to answer.

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Rhys Griffiths says...
2:24pm Wed 29 Oct 08

Norfolk in Chance said "roads don't cause collisions, drivers do.....and, there is no such thing as an accident! It could have been prevented."

I can assure you that nothing could have been done to prevent the collision by the driver of the mini, so wasn't what happened to her an accident?
In turn, I'm sure that whatever the other driver was doing, his intention wasn't to get somebody hurt and total his car, so surely that counts as an accident too?

Whether blame is involved or not, to say it's not an accident is ridiculous, and saying there's no such thing as an accident? Well to put it in your words that's "somewhat simplistic" of you, don't you think?

You are a very silly person.

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gem1981 says...
2:56pm Wed 29 Oct 08

The woman was not to blame, she had no chance of avoiding the oncoming car. The driver risked another persons life because of his lack of concentration. if only people would slow down, give themselves more time to get to their destination, stupid incidents like this would not happen.

Rhys Griffiths - RTA no longer exists. It is now known as RTC (Road Traffic Collision) This is because there is no such thing as an accident - someone or something is always to blame - usually speed or lack of concentration especially mobile phones

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Norfolk in Chance says...
3:56pm Wed 29 Oct 08

Rhys Griffiths wrote: I can assure you that nothing could have been done to prevent the collision by the driver of the mini, so wasn't what happened to her an accident?
In turn, I'm sure that whatever the other driver was doing, his intention wasn't to get somebody hurt and total his car, so surely that counts as an accident too?

Gem1981 also points out that they now are called Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs)

I agree these incidents are often called "accidents" but the cause of the collision was not an accident at all. Accidents are where something happens that nobody has control over! It was a collision between two vehicles that could have been avoided by whoever caused it. The injured party may not have been at fault, but somebody was!

They often say an unwanted pregnancy is an "accident" but is it really an accident? Could it have been avoided!

And, more to the point could this collision have been avoided?


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abbiej87 says...
4:09pm Wed 29 Oct 08

I cannot believe that some of you even have the cheek to try and say the cause of the accident was or may be due to speeding, lack of attention as someone was on their mobile etc, when really, were you sitting in the passengers seat of the red fiesta to confirm this is true?

It is a fact that there were 2 witnessess that were behind the driver of the red fiesta that have stated that the driver was NOT speeding and was NOT driving carelessly or dangerously.

Do you not stop to think that the driver of the red fiesta is feeling bad enough that they have injured somebody, without people on here upsetting the driver even more with some of the false accusations you are or may be making.

I also fail to believe that none of you have EVER made a slight mistake when you are driving.

I think that if you are going to make acussations that you firstly, need to make a thorough investigation onto this case..... which I bet none of you have even done.

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