Early morning collision on Savages Wood Road

Road traffic collision on Savages Wood Road, Bradley Stoke.

The police and ambulance services attended a road traffic collision in Savages Wood Road early this morning, after a vehicle travelling eastbound ploughed into a van parked in front of the Hornbeam Close flats.

The incident (pictured above), which involved a green Vauxhall Corsa and a white Vauxhall van, occurred at around 6.40am, in foggy conditions.

The owner of the van, who was in his flat when he heard a “loud bang”, said the incident was attended by one police vehicle and an ambulance. He told The Journal that his van had been shunted about 4m down the road as a result of the collision.

Bus operator First reported on its Facebook page at 7.52am:

“There has been a serious accident on Savages Road, Bradley Stoke causing delays on the 73. At the moment we can pass in heavy traffic, however road may be closed soon.”

The driver of the Corsa was taken to hospital complaining of chest pains and the accident scene was cleared just before 8am.

Editor’s note: Readers of The Journal have previously complained of cars parked on Savages Wood Road making it difficult for traffic to simultaneously flow in both directions along this section of the road. Residents of (and visitors to) properties in Hornbeam Close say they are forced to park on Savages Wood Road because of inadequate off-road parking provision at the flats.

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17 comments

  1. Parking along there should not be allowed its dangerous trying to neogiate parked cars and on coming traffic. This happened a couple of months ago as well a van or car was smashed into

  2. There should be double yellow lines down that road. People in the flats know about the amount of parking spaces before they buy or rent !!

  3. There’s no shortage of paint for double yellow lines in SGC’s roads budget, just look at how much they put down in the roads around the north of the town, up the dual carriage way to Esporta and all around that area to prevent on-road parking by commuters using the station. Of course that had nothing to do with their new park and ride car park up the road, a pure coincidence of course.

    I agree that Savages Wood Road should be double yellows, but that would mean the council admitting they have (yet again) under-estimated parking requirements when granting planning permission.

  4. Anyone living in those flats knew what the parking provision was when they moved in. If your property hasn’t got enough parking then that is no excuse the block a public road. The road should have double yellow lines. Its dangerous and selfish.

    The “PHS” box van there is ridiculous. Businesses should not be dumping their vehicles in public roads.

    The council planning people let their builder mates fail to provide parking and knowingly allowed this situation to develop. Looking forward to hearing their excuses!

  5. I pay my road tax and park legal when on this road! Its silly drivers speeding and being inpatient that cause the accidents. In the Hornbeam close area there are only 4 visitors spaces the council should relise most properties have two cars these days and should make more spaces when granting planning permission.

    People in the flats have parking and would of noticed Savages Wood Road could also be parked on. I have no problem when I leave Hornbeam close to enter savages wood road. The commercial vehicles/vans are the problem if anything along with the drivers having the accidents

  6. People living in these houses bought them in full knowledge of the lack if parking. You have ‘made your bed, now lie in it’. Why should we be inconvenienced by your short sightedness. The same goes for all the people moaning about parking provision in the granny flats next to the Three Brooks. You want better parking provision, go and buy a house with more spaces!!!

  7. There seems to be a common view that it is tough luck for the residents living in this area and their fault.

    Perhaps the council should take a more considered view on planning applications and their parking provisions? I very much doubt that the statutory minimums are at all adequate.

    I agree that the current situation is dangerous but to blame the residents is a bit harsh when I feel that whole situation could have been avoided.

  8. I live in the road & like everyone else was fully aware of the parking provision when I bought my property. Driving out of Hornbeam Close in the morning is hazardous enough as it is nearly impossible to see past the cars and, most annoyingly, vans parked along Savages Wood Road. I too have had people pull out in front of me from Hornbeam Close because they had no idea I was there, throw in the current fog and you have a recipe for disaster.

    My personal feeling, as a resident, is that Savages Wood road should be made double yellow AS LONG AS the same is done to Hornbeam Close otherwise it will force even more people to park on the street and bends at the beginning of Hornbeam Close which is bad enough as it is, if an Ambulance or worst still a Fire Engine (bearing in mind the majority of the street is flats) needed access in an emergency the consequences could be unimaginable. This whole situation was caused by the usual planning oversight “if we only allow one parking space then it will encourage residents to only have one car”, nonsense!

  9. As someone mentioned, I’m surprised that no one has crashed into the PHS van that constantly parks on this road. The road is so narrow with this van in the way blocking the view that a lot of people are not comfortable having to come out into the middle of the road with oncoming traffic and busses. It should be double yellowed.

  10. Sorry to take the wind from your sails Jimmer but there’s no such thing as “road tax”, and payment of Vehicle Excise Duty doesn’t convey any right to park on a road.

    Your argument blames other drivers for allegedly speeding, however the root cause of the dangerous situation on that section of road is entirely down to you and your fellow residents parking in a place that was never designed to be parked on so pushing the rest of us road users (cyclists, pedestrians, motorbikes and car drivers) into the path of relentless oncoming traffic or right up against the kerb.

    So accept you are part of the problem and come up with a solution rather than shift your responsibility and don’t place your fellow Bradley Stoke residents into an unsafe situation by your own selfish actions.

  11. Parking along Savages Wood Road is a complete nightmare!!! It should be double yellows on at least one side of the road in certain parts. Outside the Community Centre is especially becoming a huge problem also with Parents dropping their kids off to walk through the cut through to Stoke Lodge School who try and get as close to the school as possible. We’ve been saying for ages it’s an accident waiting to happen….the Police say they need a petition to do anything about it and the Council say contact the Police Ironic really that the Council Offices are in Savages Wood Road….Thought there was supposed to be a Council?? Patrol Car monitoring school drop off points…or did I just imagine that?!! General parking in Bradley Stoke in becoming a huge problem…..SGC please take note of these comments!!!

  12. The predictable response of Bradley Stoke Journal, ‘People knew the limitations of parking when they moved in and should deal with it’ etc etc…I’m sure they also knew there are no double yellow lines there too.

    I’m not saying that it’s not awkward having cars parked there, and I agree that it should have double yellows there to prevent this kind of accident happening again, but it’s pathetic to repeatedly see quickfire blame on the residents every time an incident occurs in the area.

    It’s equally the parking problem and the drivers problems for being in a hurry. That and the fact it was utterly drenched in FOG in recent days.

    The entire area has been poorly planned, the aim being to squeeze as many properties into a small space as possible with bare minimum parking and waste areas provided. I’m fortunate in not owning a car but I can understand the difficulty that drivers have here, as any visitors I have can never get a space to park and often end up parking in Tesco.

  13. I am a resident of Hornbeam – this is not the first time an accident like this has happened.

    Do I blame the Council or the Planners, or the Developers (who I am not convinced even applied for more than 1 space per flat) because this accident happened because people were parked on Savages Wood Road? No. This was probably a combination of factors, made worse by the parking, but not wholly caused by it.

    I bought my property when they were first built, in full knowledge of the parking allocation. I am “lucky” in that I only have one car, however, I too get annoyed with people parking along Savages Wood Road. 9/10 times, I will exit left and turn around at the roundabout if I actually want to go right, because visibility is too limited to safely cross without having to inch forward into two lanes of busy traffic.

    It’s inconvenient when I have visitors, as someone mentioned earlier, there are limited visitor spaces, which are taken up by selfish residents, add to that the poor parking by others within Hornbeam itself, but that’s all it is, “inconvenient”. So what do I do? I make arrangements to park away from my home – it’s far preferable to parking on Savages Wood Road. It’s what we should all do, but in this day and age we want to have immediate access to our cars, with no thought to anyone else or the potential hazards it could create.

    Do I now expect the council to sort out Hornbeam Parking? No. Would I support them putting double yellow lines along SWR. Yes.

    But, can I just say, don’t just blame this accident on the parking – we all have a responsibility to pay due care and attention when driving – as we should expect a hazard to occur at any time. In this case, I as I said earlier, I would suspect there were quite a number of factors, parking along SWR, being just one of them.

    Finally, I hope the driver of the vehicle makes a good recovery.

  14. Why I am not surprised.

    Our wonderful council agrees time after time that there is no need to understand how many cars a family may have.

    Then we have a bus route down it.

    Then it is a major access road to a big shopping centre & school.

    Then people parking ignore the highway code and parking facing oncoming traffic.

    Then it is everyone else’s fault.

    This week I was waiting for a No 73 to come through but the lady behind me decided I was being to hesitant and so overtook and went head to head with the bus.

    Should it be double yellowed, yes it think so.

  15. This is a problem not just in Bradley stoke but all over the country
    in regards to the parking on Savages wood road this over time has become a problem for many people you cant go blaming the residents all the time or the planners, when you have new builds there is mostly 1/2 parking places allowed for that property but due to many household having more than 1/2 cars its impossible to have enough to cope with the demand you cant expect to be given 2/3 parking places for every home.
    maybe Yellow lines on this road might help but I know one thing something does need to be done

  16. Does the PHS van parked outside the flats in Savages Wood Road ever move?? Ok it’s parked legally but it’s a constant hazard along with the amount of cars parked up….. Yes they need yellow lines along there as it doesn’t push the parking problem elsewhere.

  17. If people are annoyed by the PHS van, they should take pictures of it and send it to the company’s e-mail address. I had a problem with a May Gurney van parking inconsiderately and after I sent them some pictures they said they had spoken to the driver and asked him not to park there (and he hasn’t since).

    You could also have a look at Section 250 of the Highway Code that says goods vehicles exceeding 1525kg unladen weight must not park overnight without lights on. (https://www.gov.uk/waiting-and-parking/parking-at-night-248-to-252). Not sure of the weight of it, but worth a shot.

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