DRIVE TO CUT CRASHES ON DANGER ROAD
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N EIGHT-MILE road in Carmarthenshire has seen more than 350 crashes in the past decade.
The A40 between Carmarthen and St Clears has long been complained about as one of the most dangerous stretches of road in west Wales.
Used by thousands of motorists, it acts as a gateway that connects two of Wales’ most picturesque counties – Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
But crash statistics reveal that the section of the A40 between B&Q roundabout in Carmarthen and St Clears roundabout is one of the most dangerous in West Wales.
In total, between January 1, 2010, and August 31 last year, there were 359 crashes on the road. Of those, 265 involved damage to vehicles, while 94 involved injuries. Of those, 71 resulted in slight injury, 21 in serious injury, and two resulted in fatalities.
Almost four years ago, 23-year-old Daniel Cobain lost his life after a crash on this portion of the A40.
At some point between 5.30pm on Saturday, January 23, 2016, and the following morning, his Mini convertible left the road and ended up in a field next to the carriageway. The car was found early on the Sunday morning.
Less than three years later, on October 27, 2018, tragedy struck on the road again when a crash on the westbound stretch resulted in the death of fouryear-old girl Darcy-May Elm, who was travelling in a car with her parents as they headed for a family holiday in Pembrokeshire. Her parents also suffered serious injuries in the crash.
More recently, a man was critically injured after a crash between a car and a tractor on the westbound stretch of the road early on the morning of June 21 this year.
Information obtained from DyfedPowys Police has revealed that while the number of serious crashes on the eightmile stretch has remained at a similar level – between one and four a year each year – the number of crashes overall has fluctuated between 20 and 34 a year, with up to 15 a year resulting in injury.
The Welsh Government has confirmed that it is looking at this stretch of the A40 as part of a transport appraisal guidance study, stage one of which is likely to be completed this spring.
“We take road safety extremely seriously and monitor safety across the entire road network,” a Welsh Government spokesman said.
“We have begun a study on this particular stretch of road which is considering road safety, as well as other issues including active travel.”
Go Safe, the Welsh road casualty reduction partnership, said it is involved in several monitoring operations on the A40 in West Wales, and that it will continue to work to see a reduction in the number of accidents.
A spokeswoman for Go Safe said: “We work in partnership with the relevant Highways Authority and appropriate police force across Wales in order to enforce at locations where collisions occur due to speeding or red light violations. Go Safe have a robust site selection criteria based on collision risk, and will select sites accordingly.
“There are a number of special operation sites along the A40 where GoSafe currently enforce, and we can enforce offences of speeding, using mobile phones and not wearing a seatbelt there, although our collision reduction operators can also report dangerous or careless driving offences.”