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Two men killed in A43 crash named

Eight dead in three years

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Published Date:
30 August 2008
Kettering reporter
Two brothers who were killed in a crash on the A43 at the weekend have been named.
Lawrence Connors, 29, of Melton Road, Thurmaston, Leicester was driving the blue Ford Focus and Andy Connors, 23, of Towcester Road, Northampton was his passenger.

The pair were travelling towards Kettering from Northampton on the single-carriageway stretch at about 4am on Saturday morning when their car left the road near the former scrapyard by the A14 roundabout.

The accident is the third in the past month and brings the number of people killed on the road to eight since 2005.

A police spokesman said: "The men were travelling from Northampton to Kettering when the vehicle left the road near the former scrapyard by the A14 roundabout."

An eyewitness said he saw three police cars and what appeared to be an incident support unit and an ambulance in a field near the side of the A43 close to its junction with the A14 as he drove home from work at about 8am.

The air ambulance was called to the accident but did not land at the road, considered to be one of the most dangerous in the county.

Earlier in August, Nicholas Davore Hartshorn, 33, from Leicester, was killed in a horrific four-vehicle pile up on the A43 near Broughton that left another man fighting for his life.

The road, which has one of the worst accident records in the county, is the subject of a consultation with drivers over what can be done to improve its safety record.

It still tops an annual list of red routes in Northamptonshire, despite the fact that in recent years the number of serious crashes has fallen.

Chrissie Osbourn, who campaigns to improve safety on the A43, said: "This must surely underline the severity of safety issues on this road. How many deaths or serious injuries does it take for the council to acknowledge that this road needs safety measures?"

Anyone with any information should call the Drivewatch hotline on 0800 176415.



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  • Last Updated: 02 September 2008 6:08 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Kettering
 
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Pat S,

Broughton 01/09/2008 13:41:39
I suspect one of the biggest causes of accidents is unwise overtaking mostly caused by getting stuck behind trucks heading for the A14. Average speed cameras aren't going to stop that. What's really needed is to divert trucks from Round Spinney & Moulton Park to A14 via Lumbertubs Way & A45. A bypass round Gt Harrowden & Isham (whatever happened to that idea ?) would give you dual carriageway all the way for almost all the heavy traffic heading for the A14 and only one road project would be needed.
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,

01/09/2008 13:51:17
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
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Chief Wiggum,

Kettering 01/09/2008 16:26:36
As a DSA Approve Driving Instructor I would like to speak on this subject from a professional standpoint.

A road per se cannot be blamed for the death of these two men. They were travelling at 4 am and no other vehicle was involved. Human error is the cause of 95% of all crashes (University of Nottingham road traffic accident research unit)and it would seem that this was the likely case with this crash.

Whilst dualling would aid traffic flow the inability of most drivers to fully control a car in normal circumstances, let alone extreme ones, should be a concern for us all. I parked up with a pupils to observe traffic flow at the roundabout in question. We watched 30 cars use the roundabout - only one did it correctly!

I doubt if any motorist reading this would be prepared to take a driving test to see how far off the mark they really are.

I offer free mock test to my pupil's parents so that they have a benchmark to work to when giving extra practice sessions to their kids. How many have taken up my offer? None. They think they are OK drivers.

Scary.
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Ash Davies,

Kettering 01/09/2008 16:58:31
You've hit the nail on the head, 'Chief Wiggum'.
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will perrin,

A43 01/09/2008 19:55:50
Northants County Council has an appalling disregard for safety on the A43 - if several people had been killed on any other council facility there would be an outcry.
They could quickly paint double white lines down the Kettering Northampton stretch to stop overtaking and put in averaging cameras to bring all vehicles to a safer 50mph limit.
Dualling will take ten to fifteen years during which time more people will die or be seriously injured on this dangerous road. Check out www.a43safety.com for more info.
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Joan & Rob,

02/09/2008 09:24:20
I would quite happily retake my driving test, as suggested by Chief Wiggum!!! I get very angry over the way roundabouts are used (can anyone explain why people indicate right when they are going straight across??) and my father always kept his copy of the highway code open on the roundabout page as he was appalled at the lack of knowledge of how to drive round one!! Might be a good idea if instructors (the good & the bad ones!!!) gave a whole lesson on how to approach, use and leave roundabouts! Oh and to teach people to pay attention to the road markings as to which lane they should be in!!!
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Eggnchips,

Kettering 05/09/2008 11:35:21
I use the A43 every day and have have started to compile a diary of what I see on my journey. I am going to publish it under the title "My hell trip to work". Coming in to Kettering the scrapyard roundabout is a favourite for people wanting to "gamble", as you come down the hill, a lot of vehicles turn left for the A14, increasingly people have used lane 2 to go straight across in the hope that no one in the correct lane is going straight on. Coming out of Kettering I have seen cars coming off the A14 actually race trucks around the outside to try and beat them to the A43, you also have people from the kettering side, see a truck coming up the slip and use lane 2 again to try and beat them. Its crazy just starting the trip. Once on there you face the prospect of being stuck behind trucks doing no more that 40 with little or no chance most days of overtaking. The worst part is that you can actually start to sense what is going to happen, people get impatient, can't judge the distance and head out to overtake a column of traffic, they then have to force people in both directions to brake hard to avoid a "head on". On two occasions in the past month I have been forced onto the rough stuff by vehicles coming the other way who clearly have no chance of passing a vehicle in time. Its pretty radical but maybe trucks should be banned from the road from between 6am and 8am with average speed cameras installed. That way it would flow to get people to work but it would be controlled. I don't see as many instances of bad driving on the way home as I do heading out and with teh dark mornings approaching its at least a thought.
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Eggnchips,

kettering 05/09/2008 11:36:56
On the subject of roundabouts, one of the biggest problems nowadays is people being glued to their Sat Navs doing what the machine says instead of checking that they are in teh correct lane.
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