Three years ago David Milligan was driving north on the A1 through Northumberland. Suddenly a car, joining the road from his right, cut across his path. There was no time to react…he doesn’t remember much of what happened next.
The consequences were devastating. “It completely took my life away from me,” he says. David, who once worked as a consultant pediatrician at the RVI in Newcastle, was paralysed from the neck down.
He now spends much of his time in a specially adapted chair and totally depends on 24-hour care at his home in the village of Slaley near Hexham.
David is just one of hundreds of victims of the A1.
In the last twenty years more than 50 people have died and there have been nearly 300 serious injuries on the Northumberland stretch, north of Newcastle. Since 2014 there have been an astonishing 768 accidents of which 24 were fatal. This year five people died in two separate accidents just days apart.
Local campaigners describe traffic conditions as “the worst it’s ever been.”
So, there was welcome news recently from our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, that plans to dual the A1 in Northumberland could be revisited. He admitted infrastructure in the North East was not at an acceptable standard.
Burnham said in an answer to David Smith, MP for North Northumberland, “I will ask the Transport Secretary to work with colleagues at No. 10 North to see what can be done to bring forward a new way of delivering this much needed infrastructure. I know how critical it is.”
In response thirteen north-east Labour MPs, plus the Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council and the Labour group leader, wrote back offering to work with ministers and officials to progress the issue.
The A1 scheme was cancelled in Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget announcement of October 2024. The Department of Transport declared the project “unfunded and unaffordable” after projected costs ballooned past £500 million, rendering it, they said, a “poor return on public investment.”
£65 million of that sum had already been spent on preparatory work and land purchases.
Understandably David Milligan doesn’t agree. But he is more concerned about something else – equally, if not more, important. His accident happened on a section already dualled.
It occurred at one of three junctions which have become notorious accident blackspots. Here, traffic comes onto the A1 direct from minor roads. There are no slip roads to build up speed for joining the main dual carriageway.
At these junctions there is also a central reservation if you’re turning right – or crossing over. This means you might cross four lanes of fast moving traffic.
Significantly the other car driver in David Milligan’s accident was only convicted of a careless, rather than dangerous, driving offence because he argued that his view was obscured by a second car also using this central reservation.
The fact is, these junctions are highly dangerous. Highways England agrees and has admitted the junctions “do not comply” with modern standards. And that there are concerns about an “intensification of traffic.”
At an inquest into one fatality in 2012, yes, 14 years ago, the coroner wrote, “the absence of a slip road, or other safe road layout, means that when collisions occur there is an increased likelihood of a fatal outcome.”
He went onto say: “I have personally driven the full length of the A1 from the Scottish borders to the M25 and am not aware of other road junctions on the national route from which communities on either side of the A1 must cross four lanes of a road carrying traffic up to the national speed limit, without the benefit of a slip road, or other safe means of access.”
The blackspot junctions are:
- Rashercap
- Guyzance Crossroads
- Leamington Lane
The Guyzance crossroads is particularly notorious because drivers must sit in a narrow shared central reservation waiting to turn across fast moving traffic.
David Milligan says it is vital that these junctions are made safe as a priority, whether the rest of the A1 is dualled in the near future or not. “Dualling the A1 is only half the job. Provision must be made to make these junctions safe and prevent future accidents,” he says.
County Council officers and councillors agree and have prepared interim measures which they hope will begin later this year. These will be:
Targeted Junction Interventions: Upgrades to layout geometry to reduce the risk of collisions for vehicles emerging into or crossing fast-moving traffic.
Signage & Visibility Adjustments: Installing clearer, high-visibility warning signage to alert long-distance drivers to oncoming crossing traffic.
Improved Road Markings: Refreshing road surfaces with clearer lane demarcations to prevent driver confusion at crossover points.
Infrastructure Additions: Deploying improved road barriers and modern lighting layouts to assist drivers navigating the junctions during dark or foggy conditions.
The work is long overdue and it should help, but is it enough? David Milligan isn’t convinced. He feels, and most experts agree, only a full sign off on a comprehensive A1 scheme, which has been on-off so many times, will sort the issues for good.
Bridges and slip roads are needed for these three dangerous junctions on the already dualled section of the A1, as well as the completion of dualling for the entire stretch of road.
Until then it is likely that those horrific accident statistics, of which David Milligan is one, will just keep on increasing.
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