Tragic deaths of two women prompt urgent call for safety improvements at dangerous A5 slip road in Milton Keynes

A coroner is calling for urgent safety improvements after two women died at a busy A5 junction where the No Entry signs for drivers appear to be inadequate.

Sean Cummings, assistant coroner for Milton Keynes, has taken the unusual step of issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths report before a full inquest has been held into the tragedy.

His move comes after receiving reports of several other near-misses at the same spot – on the “off” slip road from the A5 at Little Brickhill.

On November 20 last year, 38-year-old Amal Mohamed Ahmed was killed when driving her Peugeot 208 and using her satnav to take her to Queensway in Bletchley.

She turned onto the slip road and drove down in the wrong direction, colliding head-on with an oncoming VW Tiguan. Ms Ahmed died at the scene and her passenger was critically injured. The female driver of the VW died later in the John Radcliffe Hospital.

The ‘No Entry’ signs appear to be badly positioned and the area is unlit, meaning that motorists do not always see them, said Mr Cummings in his report.

“After the collision attending police officers saw three further vehicles perform exactly the same manoeuvre as Ms Ahmed and attempt to travel down the sliproad in the wrong direction,“ he states.

"Local residents have contacted police and complained that it is a very common occurrence for drivers to mistakenly travel down the slip road in the wrong direction.”

The report states: “The exit point of the A5 “off” slip road at the Little Brickhill junction is wide. The signage indicating No Entry appears to be inadequate as there are two No Entry signs which are widely spaced at the junction. One is positioned to appear to forbid entry to the road over the bridge leading over the A5 and does not obviously relate to the slip road. The second is positioned such that it obliquely faces the road over the bridge and would not be visible to a driver turning right onto the slip road until they had completed the manoeuvre placing them at risk.

"There is a No Right Turn sign as the junction is approached. There is also No Entry in large white letters at the mouth of the slip road junction, however, this may be (1) obscured by vehicles leaving the slip road and (2) the junction is unlit and was said by a witness as being ‘pitch black’.

"The slip road is long and allows for the build up of considerable speed in turn facilitating what the police describe as a high energy impact."

After the collision, temporary No Entry signs were positioned at the slip road junction. But they were quickly removed apparently because the original signs were deemed to comply with necessary regulations.

"That seems wholly irrelevant to me because drivers are clearly commonly not seeing the signs because of the large numbers who mistakenly drive the wrong way onto the slip road,” said Mr Cummings.

He has sent his report to the chief executives of MK City Council and of National Highways.

They have until February 14 to respond, either explaining what action will be taken or outlining why it is felt that nothing need be done.