A DANGEROUS stretch of 70mph road on which a man died when his car careered into a bus stop is to get a major safety improvement.

An £850,000 pedestrian bridge will now be built over the A41 just outside Bicester.

It is hoped the new bridge will provide a safer route over the A41 which currently has no pedestrian crossings despite bus stops both in and out of town.

Oxford Mail:

The news follows growing calls for better safety.

An inquest last week heard how 29-year-old chef Thomas Nelson crashed his BMW into the southbound bus layby and died after driving at over 100mph.

A pedestrian at the roadside was also seriously injured in the crash last August.

Read again: Chef was driving 'like a bat out of hell' when he crashed his car, inquest hears

The inquest heard how, although Mr Nelson had been driving way over the speed limit, bumps in the road surface could have sent his car veering off course.

In addition to that, a recent traffic survey of the A41 revealed that one in five vehicles on the road travel faster than the 70mph speed limit.

Oxford Mail:

Thomas Nelson.

Oxfordshire county councillor Ian Corkin, who has long campaigned for road safety measures at the spot, said: “The reality is that the road is busy and getting busier.

“While a lot of the traffic sticks within the 70mph, even then your chances of surviving being hit by a car travelling that fast are absolutely zero, but according to the monitoring about 20 per cent of the traffic is travelling in excess of that.”

Mr Corkin said the tragic crash had highlighted the danger to pedestrians, especially those in nearby villages such as Wendlebury, who use the bus stops regularly.

He added: “You take people using the bus stops in the early evening or later at night on a road where a fifth of the traffic is travelling in excess of 70mph and it’s only a matter of time before there’s another tragedy - the footbridge is something that has to happen.”

Oxford Mail:

Funding for the new bridge was approved last month by Mr Corkin's authority, Oxfordshire County Council.

Mr Corkin said the funding had all but been agreed through a Department for Transport package to help improve road safety in towns along the HS2 route, including mitigation against the HGV long-haul routes.

Read again: New plan to solve the headache of Bicester's level crossing...

He added: “There are still a couple of governance hoops to jump through, but design should start in 2019, with delivery the following year.”

Other improvements to the A41 have also been noted online by Mr Corkin who said residents can expect vegetation to be cut back, fence repairs, reflective bollards installed, sign cleaning, remarking and the coring of subsided areas.

These works, away from the footbridge, are expected to start from February 18.