DRIVERS using Huddersfield’s most notorious road for accidents will now face 17 speed cameras.
And councillors have warned that drivers who break the speed limit will be caught, as the cameras face both ways on stretches of the busy A642 Wakefield Road.
The cameras have been switched on over a five-mile stretch of the road in a bid to cut the high number of accidents – many of them speed-related.
And it means in some stretches, through Lepton, the cameras are only a few hundred yards apart.
More cameras are to be put further along the road by Wakefield Council.
There have been 125 casualties in the last five years between Waterloo and the Kirklees boundary, at Grange Moor, close to the National Coal Mining Museum.
Additional safety measures have also been introduced between Grange Moor and the museum with the installation of solar-powered road studs in an area without street lighting.
The studs, which charge during the day, light the road up for some distance at night and indicate the presence of bends and junctions to motorists.
The safety work follows a call for action form local MP Mary Creagh and from councillors, concerned at the number of people killed and badly injured on the road.
Speed limits hod already been cut, with drivers now restricted to 30mph and 40mph along some stretches of the road.
Kirklees Highway Service, West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership and councillors from the Almondbury and Kirkburton wards investigated ways of tackling the high number of serious and fatal accidents on the route, despite road safety schemes such as the one in Lepton.
The new safety cameras were decided upon as the best solution.
Clr David Sheard, Kirklees Cabinet member for Highways and Transportation, said: “The safety cameras on Wakefield Road should encourage motorists to drive at a consistent and safe speed on the whole route.
“We considered many options including average speed cameras and fixed safety cameras but decided that average speed cameras would be unsuitable because of the number of junctions and changes in speed limit on this route.
“The combination of forward and rear-facing cameras now installed will ensure that drivers can be detected if they break the speed limit”.
Wakefield Council will be installing two further cameras along the A642 near the National Coal Mining Museum.
A spokesman said: “We are currently awaiting cost estimates from safety camera manufacturers, and once these are received, the cameras will be installed.
“The council is also looking to improve existing lining and signing on the A642 from the border with Kirklees through to Middlestown village centre, and again this work will be completed within this financial year”.
