THE LEAD councillor campaigning to make Durford Road crossroads safer after a fatal car accident says she isn’t “convinced” a road-safety survey was right.

East Hampshire District Council deputy leader Julie Butler has been campaigning vainly for 17 years to make the junction safer.

She said: “Road-safety works are Hampshire County Council’s responsibility.

“Cars speed along Pulens Lane and Heath Road East, it’s a rat run – but Hampshire carried out a survey and said cars weren’t speeding along there.

“I’ve seen cars going along there so fast there isn’t time to read their number plate, so I’m not totally convinced.

“Hopefully this very tragic accident will force the county council to make it safer.”

Costly chicanes and pinch-points to slow the traffic along Pulens Lane and Heath Road East have been suggested.

After the accident at about 2.30pm on Thursday, July 23, Hampshire County Council deputy leader Rob Humby said road resurfacing and erecting new signs at the junction was programmed for later this year.

As the Post went to press, the county council still hadn’t responded to queries about the number of complaints there had been about the junction, despite being asked three times.

In this latest accident, a Silver Astra driven by a Petersfield pensioner was in collision with a Black Corsa heading along Pulens Lane.

The Astra driver’s wife Jean Flux, aged 90 of Princes Road, died at the scene. She was a familiar sight in the roads near her home picking up litter from the nearby McDonalds drive-through in Winchester Road.

A friend said: “She was very environmentally minded, and was often out sweeping and picking up rubbish from the drive-through. She was a lovely person who cared deeply about her home town, and what happened was tragic, appalling.”

The fatality at the junction is third accident there this year, and they come on the back of a series of historic accidents.