Calls for changes on Huntington Road after flurry of crashes

In recent weeks, Husband and wife Lisa and Ian Wilson have seen or heard four crashes outside their home in Huntington Road after cars misjudged a chicane, most recently on Monday evening when a Vauxhall Astra rolled on to its side near the junction with Brockfield Road.

Mr and Mrs Wilson have asked City of York Council to replace the chicane with speed bumps, however the authority told them they could not afford to and it would slow down emergency crews.

The cause of Monday's accident is not known, but Mrs Wilson said some driving on the road was not safe.

She said: “They start going really fast through there at night. There’s a school nearby and I’m starting to wonder if someone from the school will be hit while walking home.

“Speed bumps would be better because people would slow down to go through.”

Police and an ambulance were called to Huntington Road at 5.30pm on Monday, but nobody was injured.

Mr Wilson said the street is plagued with incidents.

He added: “As residents to this area, we have witnessed two incidents involving fighting between car drivers and we constantly endure the noise of cars beeping at one another and cars speeding late at night through the chicanes as they treat it like a race track.”

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the scheme based on chicanes and a mini roundabout near the Highthorne Road junction is preferred because of the impact road humps would have on emergency vehicles and buses.

She added: “CYC has a policy called the speed management plan, which is an agreement between us as the local authority and the emergency services and others to ensure that certain key routes are left as emergency response routes.

“The agreement is that humps will not generally be used on these routes as they hinder the emergency services, when time is of the essence in terms of saving lives. This is the reason why this route and location does not have humps.”