More misery on A47 in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire with crashes every five days

A bus and lorry collision on the A47 at Thorney Toll earlier this month. Photo: Terry Harris

In September, the Peterborough Telegraph reported that police were called to 23 road traffic collisions on the stretch of road over four months from the start of May to the end of August – an average of one every 5.3 days.

The force was also called out to the area for non-road collisions on many more occasions.

Now, new police figures show that in the three-and-a-half months between September and mid-December officers were called five times to collisions on the A47 at Guyhirn and 14 times to collisions on the road at Thorney.

The 19 collisions were over 107 days - an average of one every 5.6 days.

The crashes cause anguish for residents living in the area as traffic is diverted through the villages, on top of the delays for drivers.

The road also saw a fatal collision in June with two people dying after a collision between a lorry and a bus at Thorney Toll.

The road is a single carriageway after the Thorney Bypass up until Guyhirn.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has approved a study to look at fully dualling the A47 across the county.

Highways England is already committed to dualling the A47 between Wansford and Sutton, and to increasing the capacity of the Guyhirn roundabout at the A47/A141 junction, and it is hoped it will agree to the full dualling on completion of the study.

According to Cambridgeshire County Council there were 24 injury collisions on the A47 between the junction with Station Road, Thorney, and Elm High Road, Wisbech, in 2017, down from 25 in 2016.