PEDESTRIANS and cyclists are dicing with death by crossing the busy A64 at Copmanthorpe.

Readers have told the Evening Press how they have seen golfers pulling trolleys, cyclists riding and pushing their bikes and even a mother walking with a pushchair across the dual carriageway.

The Highways Agency said today it believed a crossing facility used by the pedestrians should never have been provided because of the "obvious" safety risks of encouraging people to cross such a busy dual carriageway.

But it said a public inquiry inspector had decided - against the agency's advice - that there should be such a facility after receiving representations from the Ramblers' Association.

Bob Bustard, a local resident who contacted the Evening Press, said he had seen numerous people crossing the road by using a gap in the barriers on the central reservation.

"This has now become an everyday occurrence," he said. "Both my wife and myself have observed individuals crossing with golf trolleys, mothers with pushchairs, elderly gentlemen pushing bicycles, just to mention a few.

"The latest incident that I observed was when a golfer with trolley crossing at the said point caused a coach to take evasive action, the coach's brakes locking and causing skid marks on the carriageway."

He said the A64 upgrade at Copmanthorpe, which involves the removal of traffic lights and construction of an underpass allowing motorists to safely cross the dual carriageway to get to York, had been intended to make the area safer.

But at least the traffic lights had provided a safe crossing point for pedestrians.

He said it was human instinct to use the shortest possible route, and he thought the problem could only be eradicated by extending a new wooden fence which had been erected alongside the carriageway near Copmanthorpe.

He said an additional 300 metres of fence would make it impossible for anyone to cross at the danger point, and force pedestrians to use the York Outer Ring Road flyover to get across the A64.

He added that he had never seen a rambler using the crossing point.

A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said that it would ask an independent safety audit team, which includes engineers and the police, to look at the crossing facility once the scheme had been completed.

"We would urge anyone wishing to cross the A64 to use the overbridge provided for their own safety," she added.

The underpass is at the opposite end of the village and inconvenient for many pedestrians to use.

Ramblers' Association footpaths secretary David Nunns said the public inquiry inspector had recognised that local people had always crossed the A64 to get to a local golf course and that people knew the risks.

He said the inspector had taken the view that it was better for people to cross at one point rather than have them climbing barriers at different locations.

Mr Nunns said the association's representations had been on behalf of local people who wanted to walk across. The A64 was not a motorway, and people were entitled to walk across it rather than take a long detour via a flyover.

Updated: 11:40 Monday, September 16, 2002