Dud traffic lights blamed for string of crashes

Faulty traffic lights at a busy road junction are being blamed for a string of crashes and near-misses.
One of the accidents at the junction of Worth Road and Worth Park Avenue, Crawley SUS-160509-141554001One of the accidents at the junction of Worth Road and Worth Park Avenue, Crawley SUS-160509-141554001
One of the accidents at the junction of Worth Road and Worth Park Avenue, Crawley SUS-160509-141554001

Pensioner David Ashton says that traffic lights at the junction of Worth Road and Worth Park Avenue in Crawley have been working only intermittently for weeks.

“They were not working for about four days over the Bank Holiday weekend and I saw a number of near-misses,” he said.

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“They were also out this weekend when there were three crashes.”

He said the lights had come back on during the week but by Saturday morning they were not working again.

“During the afternoon there was a severe accident with two cars involved.

One of the drivers was a bit shaken up and we took him inside and arranged for his vehicle to be picked up.”

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The following day, said Mr Ashton, “there were two further accidents but one was not as serious as the one on Saturday.

“Then around 3.30pm there was a huge bang. Luckily, no-one was hurt but the cars overturned.

“At that time the traffic lights were still not working.

“There were no warning signs for approaching traffic that the lights were not working, just a sign on the lights themselves - there should have been a warning.”

He said the lights were repaired by an enginner about an hour and a half after the last accident.

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“This is quite a busy junction and it was inevitable that something like this would happen.

“It was obvious there was a problem there.”

Police later confirmed they had been called to the accident on Sunday afternoon.

A spokesman said the crash involved “a Vauxhall Corsa – which had turned onto its side – and a Vauxhall Vectra, occurred at the junction of Worth Road and Worth Park Avenue.

“Firefighters and paramedics were also in attendance, though no injuries were reported.”

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A spokesman for West Sussex County Council said there had been a number of wiring faults. “There have been problems caused by a series of underground wiring faults at the junction, requiring new cables to be installed.

“We have isolated the faulty wiring and made a temporary fix, which restored the signals on Sunday.

“We have instructed our supplier to replace the faulty wiring to correct the problem.”