Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Crash victim’s family back rapid road improvements
The family of a grandmother killed on a notorious country road near Canterbury say a multi-million pound cash injection to make the route safer cannot come soon enough.
Chris Hickmott, 68, died in 2014 almost three weeks after her yel- low Fiat Panda hit a tree on the A252 at Chilham.
Now her only daughter, Hettie Walton, says plans to spend £2.8 million on the road from Charing to Chilham must be supported.
The road is considered an accident black spot following a string of serious and fatal crashes, and Kent County Council has applied to the Department for Transport for funding for improvements.
Ms Walton, 50, of Park Place, Ashford, said: “I think the improvements should have been done years ago.
“When I stand at the side of the road where my mum died, drivers whizz through there at 70mph or 80mph.
“It is a shame that people see flowers at the side of the road but do not slow down. I would like to see the council get the funding.”
Mrs Hickmott used to work at the tax office in Canterbury but was later employed as a carer after moving to Challock with her husband, Robin.
She suffered multiple serious injuries and had to be cut free from her car by firefighters after the accident in May 2014.
She was flown to King’s College Hospital in London, where she remained in an induced coma, but her family had to make the agonising decision to turn off her life-support machine.