I AM not surprised about the accident at the junction of Chorley New Road and Victoria Avenue as I almost caused a crash there myself some months ago. The lights are not faulty as such but the problem concerns vehicles turning right from Chorley New Road into Victoria Road (ring road): when the lights turn red for them, any vehicles that are waiting to turn right will probably assume (as I did) that it is also red for oncoming traffic and that they have to proceed with the turn to avoid traffic from Victoria Avenue turning onto Chorley New Road or crossing onto Beaumont Road.

However, the lights remain on green for traffic driving along Chorley New Road towards Bolton, which is not always obvious if there is a short gap in that traffic; likewise, traffic into Bolton will probably be unaware of the red light for traffic facing them and so will not expect waiting cars to turn in front of them.

Like Mrs Coetzee, I reported this (in my case to Bolton Council Engineering Dept) but with no response. I also reported an issue with the lane markings on St George's Road immediately after the junction with Vernon Street travelling out of Bolton. In this case, the lane markings swerve out to avoid vehicles parked legitimately on the left. Whilst local motorists would be prepared for this manoeuvre, any motorists new to the road (particularly those in the outer lane) could well be caught out, especially in dark/and or rainy conditions. The simple solution is to reduce the parking area slightly so that the 'swerve' is less severe. It would also help if they looked at the right turn from the A666 where it merges with Higher Bridge Street. The 'swerve' there, particularly with heavy lorries in either lane, is quite severe and needs to be adjusted.

Michael Wright

Bolton