A city centre junction has been slammed for having crashes ‘every week’ — with some fatal, and others resulting in cars smashing into a historic building.
The crossroads where Trinity Way and Blackfriars Road meet, in Salford, has seen 20 crashes from the start of 2017 to mid-2022. Of those, two were fatal, and six were classed as ‘serious’ by cops.
The other 12 recorded by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were seen as ‘slight’ — but this is not believed to be the true number of incidents that have taken place there — as some will not be reported to officers. Now, authorities say improvements have been made to the junction to prevent the tragedies happening again.
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“A car came through and did quite a lot of damage, I think there was a fatality there,” Simon Yardley, manager of the Black Friar pub, recalled. “Another hit the building not long after.
“You can see the railings now - every part of the junction has been hit. The railings outside were affected in November after a two car crash. Every week there’s something”
The pub — which reopened in 2021 after years of closure — has borne the brunt of the impacts. Its owner, Neil Burke, says the situation reached a nadir last month.
He said: “I would say it’s every two or three weeks. Over the Christmas period it was insane, I think we had three or four ambulances out. It’s just constant. It just seems strange that they have not done more about it.”
On the opposite side of the junction is a Renault and Alpine garage. Debbie Lewis works in their customer service department, and agrees there’s ‘a lot of crashes'.
“Most Sunday mornings, there has been something,” she told the M.E.N.. “There was one a couple of weeks ago where a BMW got turned upside down. It’s also awful to cross on foot.
“There’s been a lot of crashes. The other thing is on Blackfriars Road all the traffic wants to turn right, but it means if people want to go straight on or left, they get stuck in the same queue — so a lot of people try jump it there.”
Her colleague, John Williams, called it ‘a bad junction’. He added: “People complain about getting in and out as well, you only need a bit of roadworks on a major route and it becomes a rat run.”
One of the issues identified by the firms on either side of the crossroads is traffic light sequencing. Mr Burke says that people turning right from Trinity Way into the city centre often do not realise their route is not on a green-filtered traffic light.
That’s an issue Salford City Council has addressed, according to Mike McCusker, its lead member for planning and sustainable neighbourhoods.
In a statement, Coun McCusker said: “One collision is one too many at any location. Following the incidents here we are working with Transport for Greater Manchester and Greater Manchester Police to investigate the circumstances and see if there is anything that can be done to reduce the risk in future.
“In this case several collisions have happened with traffic turning right from Trinity Way into Blackfriars Road coming into conflict with traffic going straight ahead on Trinity Way. The traffic signals have been amended to make it clearer to drivers turning right when it is safe to do so while we consider any further, longer-term measures.”
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