Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Tributes left at death-crash site
Flowers have been left at the scene of a crash that claimed the life of a 45-year-old man.
Named only as ‘Lee’ on tributes, the driver died after his Audi TT careered into a fence on the A291 Canterbury Road.
The man, who police say was from the Herne Bay area, was the only person in the car when it crashed near the Bullockstone Road junction at Herne Common.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene at about 2.45pm last Thursday, but the man was pronounced dead by medics.
Officers, who informed the dead man’s family about his death, closed the road for almost five hours between Curtis Wood Road and Busheyfields Road.
Stephen Whiting, who runs a fencing business and lives on the Bullockstone Road junction, captured the crash on his CCTV system.
The footage has been given to police, who are examining it for clues as to how the accident happened.
Mr Whiting said: “I had just left for the school run when I got a phone call to say what had happened and managed to get back before the road was closed.
“We have lived here for seven years and during that time there have been dozens of crashes.
“Most don’t even get reported and the cars are just pulled out of the bushes.”
In 2015, the A291 was rated among the most dangerous roads in Britain by the Road Safety Foundation following 19 serious or fatal crashes in seven years.
Student Stephin Thomas, 19, was killed two years ago when the VW Golf he was a passenger in left the road and crashed into trees on the same bend.
Developers behind plans for 800 homes at Strode Farm in Herne have applied to Canterbury City Council to build a roundabout on the junction, but a decision is yet to be made.
Anyone who witnessed Thursday’s crash or the Audi in the moments before should call the police’s serious collision investigation unit on 01622 798538, or email sciu.td@kent.pnn.police. uk, quoting reference MC/ DH/032/17.