A councillor has blasted an “unsatisfactory” safety review of a road junction that had nine crashes leading to injuries in 48 months.

Central Watford and Oxhey county councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst says that he is unhappy with the overall road safety review conducted at the junction where Wiggenhall Road and Thomas Sawyer Way meet.

The junction was introduced in 2016 after a new access route was created to Watford General Hospital.

A full safety review was set in motion after Cllr Giles-Medhurst obtained figures showing the number of personal injury accidents at the junction, with fears that illegal U-turns at the junction were “dangerous”.

According to the review, between December 2016 and November 2020, there were nine personal injury incidents at the junction – two with serious injuries and seven incidents with slight injuries – with there being a total of 13 slight injuries from the seven incidents.

After an incident in 2018, there were no further incidents recorded until November 2020.

More recently, a white BMW and black Corsa crashed at the junction midday on June 14.

Watford Observer: Two cars crashed at the junction last week (Photo: Robert Watson)Two cars crashed at the junction last week (Photo: Robert Watson)

The general concern is that drivers are taking unorthodox U-turns by the junction, but the review suggested that there is sufficient signage to discourage drivers from doing so.

And while the report says there is a “small number” of prohibited turning manoeuvres, it was concluded they do not appear to be a contributory factor to crashes and no action needs to be taken.

The review was carried out on April 27 this year, which was notably recorded as a dry day with moderate traffic flow.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst believes that the review itself was not a fair assessment of the safety, considering that the survey could have taken over multiple days to assess different traffic conditions.

He added that near misses and accidents – which are not recorded – need to be taken into consideration as well as the actual personal injury accidents.

The audit pointed there was a drop in incidents up until November 2020, and Cllr Giles-Medhurst pointed out this was likely due to the lower traffic volumes during the pandemic.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst said: “It was a totally unsatisfactory report, they accepted the problems and so far are refusing to do anything - I want it done again.

“This is not the end of the story as far as I’m concerned. There is quite clear evidence of illegal turnings here, which is contributing to personal injury accidents.

“Sooner or later unfortunately, there may be a casualty here, and I want to avoid that.”

When asked what he would like to see, the councillor said that police should have been involved in the review.

He added that increased police presence and CCTV could help deter anyone taking unorthodox turns in the area.

The councillor said: “This junction is going to be heavily used as the health campus is built, as the new hospital is built and the more housing that goes on.

“There is going to be more traffic in this junction, now is the time to either put some physical measures in to make it more difficult for people to do those turns.”