A PETITION has been signed by almost 5,000 people urging Somerset Council to take action to make the A361 Frome bypass and the junction where this meets the A362 safer following two recent fatalities in the area.
The suggestions include either installing a roundabout at the junction or to reduce that stretch of the A361 from 60mph to 40mph. The petition follows a recent incident that tragically saw two Frome sisters die after a fatal collision involving a VW Polo and an Audi RS6.
The petition says, “As a resident of Frome, it’s about time the council took action to tackle the dangerous junction where the A361 meets the A362 near ASDA. This straight road has seen many fatal collisions, life-changing injuries and near misses over the years.
“You only have to google this road to see the endless news articles. This road has recently taken the life of two more. The council should consider reducing the speed limit from 60 to 40mph or introducing a roundabout at the junction.”
Speaking about the petition, a Somerset Council spokesperson said, “We are grateful for the petition highlighting the concerns that the community have about road safety on the A361 Frome bypass following the recent tragic fatal collision in which two people died. Our initial work is for the road safety team to support the Avon and Somerset Police investigation to understand the circumstances that led to this collision occurring.
“It is important that we have this evidence before making any decisions about how such a collision could have been prevented. This can take some time and we are not aware of a link with the collision and the A361/A362 junction, which is around a mile from the collision site. We do not have any records of any other injury collisions in the area.
“However, we have identified records of eight slight severity injury collisions over five years between 2018 and 2022 at the A361/A362 junction; therefore this has been identified as a cluster site as part of our regular reviews of the injury collision records. It will therefore be submitted for a future road safety engineering scheme, although based on the current data we have, a significant change to a roundabout would not be justified as a solution at this stage.”
Avon and Somerset Police are still seeking any information about the collision, “We are especially keen to speak with the driver of a white VW who was in the vicinity at the time of the collision. If you can help, or have any more information, please quote reference 5223178752.”
To view the petition search, ‘A361 Frome – Reduce the speed limit’ on change.org or visit www.change.org/p/reduce-the-speed-limit-on-the-a361on-the-outskirts-of-frome
