Traffic Incident on Cheshire Street

Adrian Cope sent us this self explanatory note that he had sent to South Staffordshire Housing Association regarding an incident on Tuesday 18th July.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to register a complaint about one of your van drivers. On Tuesday 18 July at about 5.10pm I was accompanying my daughter, who is a recent beginner driver, through the village of Audlem, where we live. As we approached the Scout Hall travelling in the Nantwich direction, my daughter had to slow right down as there were cars parked to her left and also vehicles parked on the right-hand side of the road in front of the scout hall that were being unloaded.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, a careless oncoming driver found it too much to wait and let a car clearly displaying "L" plates through, but carried on towards our side of the road, causing my daughter to have to suddenly stop, and thereby stall. Having restarted the engine, and once the oncoming two or three vehicles had passed, she started to pull away, only to have to slam her brakes on again as a white SSHA van came tearing past on our right-hand side, horn blaring as the driver realised that a collision seemed imminent. The first I saw of this was in the car's right-side mirror, but fortunately was able to get my daughter to stop again as the van halted to the side of us.

I couldn't hear what was being shouted by your driver, but it was enough for those unloading the vehicle outside the scout hall, who had seen the incident, to have to shout back at him through his window, apparently making a few points about his driving and telling him to calm down. At this point the van took off again, with no apparent diminution of speed.

I make no excuse for the fact that my daughter should have indicated to show that she intended to move off again, but as stated, she is practically a beginner learner. Nor does this alter the fact that as there was a row of stationary cars to our left, we were obviously not parked. On top of this, the car was clearly displaying a rear "L" plate, and as there were pedestrians in the road to the right of us, racing a van through such a gap at speed was reckless in the extreme.

May I suggest that you engage in some fleet management and education of your drivers to avoid future accidents.

Regards,

Adrian Cope

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