Collision
●● The scene of the crash in Edenfield leg. The Mercedes driver, a Chorley man, aged 35, was taken to Oldham Hospital with a bleed on the brain. A woman, 48, from Nottinghamshire driving the Vauxhall, was treated for minor injuries.
Police closed the road for five hours. Call police on 101 quoting log reference 0353 of November 15 with any information.
Meanwhile, drivers faced long delays after a ‘serious’ collision between an Audi A1 and a Citroen near Grane Road shortly after 7.30am on Wednesday. The A56 was closed northbound between the A682 and A681 near Edenfield and the northbound sliproad near Tesco was also closed off. Four people were injured, of whom two were taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital.
MORE roadworks are causing frustration for drivers in Rawtenstall.
County hall highways department are resurfacing Burnley Road from Alexandria Street to just past Roberts Street, with works scheduled to last until Friday, November 24.
It comes after Lancashire County Council (LCC) apologised and vowed to minimise disruption after the closure of Bocholt Way coincided with works on Newchurch Road last month.
Helen Chiesa, who is caring for her 87-year-old mother who is receiving end of life care, said the new works were badly affecting her.
Helen, 54, said: “My mum has a caring team that come three times a day, people like doctors, nurses and carers. They can’t sit for 50 minutes - the level of disruption is really bad. I’m really concerned this could be affecting carers getting to elderly people in the Valley who need help.
“The other day I sat for 50 minutes in traffic just to do a really short journey in the town and ended up having to abandon my car and walk.”
Vicki Ayrton, who owns Loom Interiors at Brookside Business Park, just off Burnley Road, said: “We haven’t had anybody in the shop for two days. It’s absolutely killed us.
“It’s been chaos. The traffic lights have been outside our shop and the roads have been gridlocked. It took me 40 minutes to get from Asda just down the road to the shop.
“We are a new business just starting out and we have put our heart and soul into it. We rely purely on trade.”
Dwayne Lowe, area highways manager for LCC, said: “Some disruption is inevitable when doing this type of work in this location, however we’re doing all we reasonably can to keep it to a minimum.
“The work is being done during the day outside of peak times, and we’re manually controlling traffic which means we can respond better to traffic levels than by using temporary traffic lights. ●●
“Weather permitting, we’ll be laying the new surface on Thursday and Friday next week when we’ll need to close a lane over the full length. The new surface will last for many years before further repairs on this scale are needed and we’re grateful for people’s patience while we carry out this vital work.”
Mr Lowe added they are also due to resurface a stretch of Burnley Road in Crawshawbooth from Crawshaw Grange to the graveyard, starting on Monday, December 4 for two weeks.