COLLISIONS on one of the borough's busiest stretches of road are crippling traffic flow and causing frustrated motorists to wonder if the whole area is heading for gridlock.
On Friday last week, a 32-year-old male pedestrian is believed to have entered into the London-bound traffic outside Fuller’s brewery, just off the Hogarth Roundabout on the A4.
Police say it is a miracle he survived after he was hit by one car, then by a further two as he picked himself up and for a fourth time by a lorry.
The man, from Fulham, remains in a critical but stable condition after being taken by London Air Ambulance to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.
The accident happened at 4.45pm, but hundreds of frustrated people were held up during rush hour until 11pm when the roads cleared.
Tailbacks, diversions across Hammersmith and Kew bridges and people bottle-necking on the west bound lane caused massive delays.
Furious motorists trying to get into central London for Friday night theatre bookings and dinner had to crawl for two hours just to get from Brentford to Hogarth Roundabout. There were also several accidents in the traffic due to the standstill and diversions.
No sooner had the area got back to what passes for normal on a road which has become a staple of traffic bulletins, than another accident occurred within 24 hours.
Once again it was close to the roundabout, this time a car full of passengers somehow managed to overturn.
London Ambulance Service attended the incident at 1pm, and checked the driver and passengers, but they miraculously walked away injury-free. There were delays of just over an hour, blocking up the entire section of the A4.
Both incidents led to a wealth of comments posted online as drivers vented their spleen and pointed to other countries in Europe which can clear similar jams in considerably less time.
From October 2009 to October 2012, Transport for London confirmed there were 43 incidents which produced injuries at Hogarth Roundabout, with only one person being taken to hospital, but minor prangs which still cause delays generally go unreported.
Councillor John Todd, who represents Chiswick Homefield ward, called Friday’s incident ‘an unfortunate accident’ and added: “The police have agreed with us to focus on people speeding on Chiswick Lane (as a priority for the area) but when there’s an incident of this size on that road there are always going to be delays.”
Despite hundreds of motorists having their Friday evenings ruined, the AA believes TfL generally do a good job of keeping traffic moving at Hogarth.
Paul Watters, the AA’s head of road and transport policy, said: “While we appreciate any delays can be frustrating, progress has been made to reduce them and TfL’s route managers, generally speaking, do a good job of keeping their key network open bearing in mind the pressures they’re under.
“Better route management has actually led to a reduction in journey times on some roads.
“This recent spate of incidents is unfortunately more likely to be down to bad luck.”
Despite this, councillor Gerald McGregor, who also represents Chiswick Homefield ward, believes his idea to build a super tunnel running under the A4, which he first aired in 2006, should still be an option to alleviate traffic and prevent accidents.
He said: “If we built a four-lane tunnel from the Hammersmith Flyover to just past the Hogarth Roundabout we could prevent a lot of accidents, the traffic would flow much quicker and pollution could be reduced as it would be pumped out of the tunnel.”
