Chesham: Latimer Road crash leads to road safety pleas

Residents have called for urgent action on Latimer Road in Chesham after two cars smashed at the Hollow Way Lane junction on October 10.

The junction is a hotspot for accidents and near-misses, the residents have said. 

Three people were injured after a crash in January 2017 at the Hollow Way Lane and Latimer Road junction, while three suffered injuries in a serious crash near the Household Recycling Centre on Latimer Road in May 2021.

Speed limit on the road is 30mph and it has some sharp bends and is prone to flooding.

Dad-of-one Will Davis said: “The turning into Hollow Way Lane is a blind corner, it’s terrifying. My daughter Isabella’s car seat happens to be on that side. When I turn, it’s horrific.

Latimer Road and Hollow Way Lane junction from Chesham direction (Image: Google Street View)

“I don’t know what it’s going to take for better safety. That turn into Hollow Way Lane is absolutely lethal for pedestrians walking on that pavement where it stops, drivers cyclists all road users.”

He wasn’t sure what could make the junction safer.

“Something to slow things down, some sort of chicane or something,” he said.

Chesham Town Councillor and Latimer resident Justine Fulford said the primary danger on Latimer Road was “drivers not behaving responsibly” and “poor maintenance compounding that.”

“Buckinghamshire [Council] needs to take a more active approach to road safety. The road safety signs are invisible, they are either washed off the road or hidden behind the hedges. There’s a poor attitude to maintenance and poor attire of drivers. Road safety is the bag of Buckinghamshire Council.”

Although speed limit on Latimer Road used to be 60mph 12 years ago until a safety campaign by residents and Justine, she said drivers were still going dangerously fast and treating 30pmh as a target rather than the maximum allowed speed.

A device recording traffic information for the Town Council showed there were 9,735 passing the junction of Latimer Road and Hill Farm Road on the week commencing Monday, September 11. The highest average speed recorded was 38mph between 4pm and 5pm.

Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet member for transport Steven Broadbent said: “Buckinghamshire Council takes road safety extremely seriously and carries out regular highways safety inspections across the county. We will ask our highways team to investigate the signs in Latimer Road and will speak to landowners to request they cut vegetation back if their hedging is blocking signage. No reports of fading signage were noted in previous safety inspections but this will be checked again.

 “Buckinghamshire Highways carries out ongoing analysis of injury collision rates for the previous five years, using data reported by Thames Valley Police, in order to prioritise our safety schemes. According to this data there have been no reports of injury collisions at the junction with Hollow Way Lane in that time period and so this location is not flagged as a site that meets the criteria for safety interventions to be needed. We will review the details of the latest collisions when they are received from the police and if a safety issue is apparent, we will carry out further investigation.”