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Car crash causes rush hour gridlock in Wimbledon

7:11pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Wimbledon Photograph of the Author By Omar Oakes

The car crashed into a bollard at the junction of Worple Road at Wimbledon Hill Road The car crashed into a bollard at the junction of Worple Road at Wimbledon Hill Road

An accident, in which a car crashed into a bollard, caused severe travel disruption in Wimbledon this evening.

The vehicle, described as a people carrier, crashed outside Ely's department store, at the junction of Worple Road and Wimbledon Hill Road, at 5.25pm.

Wimbledon Hill Road was blocked in both directions while emergency services treated the female driver at the scene, who was later taken to hospital with neck injuries.

Councillor David Dean, who represents Dundonald ward at Merton Council, described it as a "dramatic scene" and that traffic had come to a standstill.

The road was reopened at 7pm and the disruption meant five bus routes had to be diverted.

Did you see what happened? Did you take pictures? Email Omar at ooakes@london.newsquest.co.uk or tweet @OmarOakes.

Comments(10)

tjames says...
6:42am Fri 3 Feb 12

remove all these obstructions--save a fortune and reduce crashes

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MattGush says...
8:34am Fri 3 Feb 12

This is probably the 4th or 5th time this exact thing has happened in the past 3 - 4 months, since the flexible style bollard was replaced with a solid bell shape one. Does the Council/Highways Department keep a record of this? Surely they should take into account that if this is happening so regularly, that a different approach should be taken to managing this junction?

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Mordenman says...
9:29am Fri 3 Feb 12

Merton Council has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years making this junction more dangerous every time they fiddle with it. Every town centre in the Borough is based on an outdated one way system that doesn't work. Traffic chaos radiates out from all of them and gridlock is now a permanent feature. Fiddling with the timing on the lights and replacing bollards will achieve nothing.

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haartWimbledon says...
9:34am Fri 3 Feb 12

I work in haart estate agents directly beside the junction and there have been at least seven occasions where such an accident has occurred since the new bollard was installed. Each time it has happened we have taken care of the people involved in our office and I am sick of seeing this happening. Surely there is a better way of designing this junction.

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Steve@haart says...
10:01am Fri 3 Feb 12

Prehaps the eagle eyed council officer who spotted a loose slate on the roof of Suk Saran and told the owner he had an hour to fix it as the public was in "immediate danger" should look at this story. Road closed, two fire engines, ten firefighters for a LOOSE SLATE!!!!!
Eight crashes (that I know of) written off cars, injury to the public and what will happen????
The same that always happens, Conways will arrive and re-fix the bollard!!!!!!!

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RHMetastorm says...
3:04pm Fri 3 Feb 12

What I want to know is why people are cutting the corner and driving over the pavement?? If the bollard wasn't there then then they would be crashing into pedestrians! (i.e. me because I use that crossing daily!)

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www.bycostello.com says...
4:05pm Fri 3 Feb 12

7pm? The road was still shut around there when we went for dinner at about 7:45pm!

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Silvpet says...
12:34pm Tue 7 Feb 12

RHMetastorm wrote:
What I want to know is why people are cutting the corner and driving over the pavement?? If the bollard wasn't there then then they would be crashing into pedestrians! (i.e. me because I use that crossing daily!)
totally agree!

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Angela M says...
4:34pm Thu 9 Feb 12

Many of the crossings in and around Wimbledon town centre are pretty rubbish - some take too long to change, others are regularly blocked by cars because of slow-moving traffic, and once I was nearly hit by a car because they were caught in a box junction and went through a red light to get out of it. But these bollards should stay - as others have said, if the bollard wasn't there, they would have hit pedestrians instead!

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Silvpet says...
8:15am Sat 25 Feb 12

Absolutely the bollards should stay as the fault lies with the driver who was most probably speeding. If the bollard wasn't there someone could have got seriously hurt. There is no excuse but I just love the way irresponsible drivers have to blame something else for something that is their own fault.

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