"It's going to cause more accidents" - resident slams 'dangerous' Chesterfield road after spate of crashes

The narrow and winding road Dunston Road, on the outskirts of Chesterfield, has a 50mph speed limit in place but members of the local residents’ group have highlighted their concerns after a number of recent accidents and what they regard as ‘reckless’ driving by some motorists who use it.

Tony Darwent, 78 and a member of the group, has lived in the area for two decades and said the issue has been getting progressively worse.

He explained that accidents have often occurred as a result of people misjudging the corners and bends but he believes that there have also been some accidents in the area caused by the way people drive on the narrow highway.

Tony, who used the road to commute to Sheffield every day for fifteen years, said he found the route “daunting”.

He said: “You get hardened to it when you ride a bike but even I find it very daunting to ride that road. There are blind summits, you could call them, of short and sharp increases where vehicles, instead of waiting behind the cyclist for a few seconds, try to overtake and most cyclists, through habit, tend to take evasive action in order to avoid a collision.”

Another resident told the DT that the road was often prone to flooding and that two ‘serious accidents’ took place on Monday, May 29.

“There are going to be more accidents, I am sure of it. I do not believe that there is a simple solution, or one that is easy anyway. It is a narrow road and it could be widened but I’d imagine that would be of unbearable expense and, actually, might make people more confident in going at higher speeds”, Tony said.

A spokesman for Derbyshire County Council said: “We are aware of residents’ concerns about the potential for additional traffic and a new access junction on the B56050 as a result of a new development in that area which we are currently looking into. We haven’t been informed about the reported accidents so we’re unable to comment on these.”