Danger road needs action

Coroner Ian Smith, who has presided over many inquests into deaths on the M6 to Barrow trunk road, said he personally pictured the collisions he had investigated as he drove along the road.

"It's littered with tragedy along its length," he said.

"Police say that roads can predispose towards incidents occurring and to them being more serious than they would be in other places, this piece of road is without doubt a piece of road that does predispose towards things happening as I know only too well.

"I will write to the two MPs that cover my jurisdiction - Tim Collins and John Hutton... to remind them both of the number of accidents, fatal accidents and serious ones that have occurred on a fairly short section of road.

Any additional ammunition they get from me they can use in any way they feel appropriate but it's not up to me to call for a by-pass."

He made his remarks at an inquest on Wednesday into the death of Heysham biker Christopher Dale Bell, who collided with a car as it turned right into a driveway on a notorious accident black spot at Low Newton.

The inquest heard how 31-year-old Mr Bell had been out for an evening run with a group of five biking friends on Wednesday July 4 last year before the collision at around 8pm.

Witness Andrew Littlefair, a Carnforth lorry driver, said Mr Bell had overtaken him near Yew Tree Barn at a speed he guessed was between 70 and 80mph.

Moments later, after the bike had returned to its side of the road, he saw the rider brake, then fall from his bike and slide into the front, passenger door of a Vauxhall Nova which was swinging into a drive after 'the narrows' at Low Newton where buildings hem the road.

Mr Bell died shortly afterwards of multiple injuries.

Police accident investigator Jon Skelton said there was "no way anyone could tell" how fast Mr Bell was travelling or establish with absolute certainty whether the car driver - 20-year-old nanny and nursery nurse Helen McMillan - saw Mr Bell before starting her turn.

Mr Bell's friend Roderick Lund, a police officer from Catterall, said he had been leading the biking group and reported that Miss McMillan was in the middle of the road when he and another friend passed her.

"She looked startled, so I indicated to her to stop as best I could.

I thought she was going to turn across in front.

When I realised she had seen me I thought she was going to turn in front of others."

Mr Lund and fellow biker James Redford of Morecambe also maintained that Miss McMillan was not wearing glasses, which they later learned she needed.

But Mr Smith dismissed the idea that Miss McMillan's sight had any bearing on the accident, saying he believed Miss McMillan when she said she was wearing her spectacles and that Mr Lund and Mr Geary could have been mistaken in the confusion of the accident.

Summing up, he said the collision was caused by an "awful and tragic" combination of factors.

He concluded that Mr Bell was probably travelling at the then legal limit of 60mph, but that his speed was still "a contributory factor" and the fact that he was also riding a borrowed bike had possibly affected the effectiveness of his braking.

Mr Smith also stressed that he believed Mr Bell was not in view when Miss McMillan started to turn right, although he suggested that her inexperience at the wheel, having passed her test around six months before the collision, meant she had possibly taken longer on her manoeuvre.

But he also made clear his view that the road had a part to play and criticised a 1996 planning decision to allow the conversion of Oakbarn into a residential property with an access onto the A590 - even though the Highways Agency had permitted the drive after consultation and decided that enforcement action was not necessary when it transpired that the drive was not built according to the approved plans.

"That piece of road has been notorious for many years, all I can say is that it is a source of regret that not more thought was given to the safety issues for a property there," he said.