Reports have reached us of a motorbike accident which occurred on bank holiday Monday, May 5. Coming from the Strand and approaching the sharp left hand bend near Alsford Timber store, the rider apparently pulled out into the path of an oncoming car and was thrown into the windscreen.
A passer-by returning from the allotment gardens witnessed the man lying in the road, with emergency services present. He appeared to be talking with a police officer, but it is not known whether he had sustained injury. Sussex Police have been approached for further information.
Image Credits: Kenneth Bird .
As usual bikes were speeding all over the town, and the bike in question was allegedly popping wheelies along there before misjudging the corner. It’s the families and driver of the car that I feel sorry for. He was lucky he didn’t end up dead and there is no policing of these idiots. In Military Rd they were belting along and people with young kids were going to the Globe for lunch. If there was a collision I think we all know what the outcome would be.
It’s pathetic riding. If you want to race, do a track day and if you kill yourself there then that’s your issue. Sadly, I think it will take a fatality in the town before anything gets done about it and with summer approaching, it will only get worse.
As a resident of South Undercliff, I can vouch that the volume of traffic and the noise on that particular day
(Jack-in-the-Green in Hastings) was horrendous.
As residents we have to endure speeding traffic every day of the week, with lorries mounting the very narrow pavement to squeeze past each other. What we need is signage on the road and on the lamp posts reminding drivers it is a 30mph zone!!
I did write to our local MP Sally-Ann Hart about this issue and her office replied saying that she is very concerned generally about the speed on the roads in and out of Rye. Highways England are responsible for the A259 and I have written to them several times but they always come up with reasons why things cannot be done. A bit of consideration for the residents of the town wouldn’t go amiss!!
A 20 mph limit throughout Rye should be introduced. Would any decent locals object to such a thing? If not then surely it should be possible to lobby for such a thing successfully.
As far back as January 2017 Rye News reported on residents desire for a 20mph speed limit. Clearly there’s been no progression. Law breakers will always be law breakers regardless of the speed limit. It would be an achievement if everyone followed the current 30mph. Just to take the heat off the bikers for a moment, many cars break the speed limit along Cinque Ports St, down the Landgate, and don’t bother to stop at the junction with Rye Road to check if there’s any traffic coming along Fishmarket Rd. It’s pure luck that I’ve not witnessed a crash. And there’s more tomfoolery, lately I’ve noticed cars turn off Rye Road to drive the wrong way up the Landgate and park so they can stop to collect takeaway food. They then use the space outside The Brewery Yard Club to turn their cars around for the return journey home.
Sadly that is not possible Henry w, on a major trunk road, only B roads I think it can be introduced, after having several routes for a bypass 30 years which were all rejected, with some good and others bad for the town, we all have to suffer, who live on the A259 route, if it had happened the A259 would have been declassified, and a 20mph speed could have been implemented, and maybe slowed down motor bikes, and cars that treat our roads in town as speed tracks.
Although clearly having a 20mph section of a busy A road would be unusual, it is legally possible and not without precedent. This is from ’20splenty.org’:
“Even parts of the strategic road network – ‘A’ roads – can go 20mph without humps, to enhance road safety. 20mph limited ‘A’ roads include the A61 through the centre of Thirsk, the A307 through Petersham in Richmond upon Thames[1], amongst others. ”
https://www.20splenty.org/20mph_limits_for_villages
So even though the chance for a bypass was lost, might it not still be worth campaigning to slow the trunk road traffic as it passes through our town?
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the A259 run past Guestling School