Safety overhaul at killer junction
SAFETY measures are to be put in place at a busy Birmingham road junction where a young doctor was killed while cycling.
Suzanna Bull, aged 32, died last October when she was hit by a lorry riding her bike along Pershore Road in Edgbaston .
Now Birmingham City Council is to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists at the junction of Pershore Road and Priory Road by Edgbaston cricket ground.
It is proposing a package of improvements – including pelican crossings, cycle lanes and road widening – and has launched a consultation.
Dr Bull was on a placement at Birmingham Children’s Hospital as part of her training to be a GP when she was killed as she cycled across the junction during the rush-hour traffic at 4pm last October. Following the tragedy, cycling groups claimed it was an “accident waiting to happen” as it was a dangerous junction for cyclists.
Now the council is proposing a new scheme at the Pershore Road/ Bristol Road /Priory Road/Edgbas- ton Road junction by the cricket ground, Aldi store and Cannon Hill Park . Measures proposed include: A new pedestrian crossing; A separate cycle path; Widening the carriageway on Priory Road and Edgbaston Road to accommodate the new pedestrian crossings;
Introduce two new right turn lanes from Edgbaston Road to Pershore Road;
Building a new left turn slip road off Bristol Road onto Priory Road;
A controlled crossing for cyclists at Edgbaston Road;
Improved traffic signing, road markings and street lighting along the route.
In the consultation the city council said the junction was “particularly bad” for pedestrians and cyclists.