Road to Chipping Norton frightens even Top Gear man (From Witney Gazette)

Road to Chipping Norton frightens even Top Gear man

2:40pm Friday 1st December 2006 in Witney By Reg Little

JEREMY Clarkson is not a motorist easily driven to worry when behind a steering wheel.

But the Top Gear presenter says he finds himself regularly having to dice with death when driving between Oxford and his home in Chipping Norton.

The man who has made a career glamorising speed and enraging safety campaigners and cyclists reckons to know a dangerous stretch of road when he sees it.

And he believes that the A44 has become a frightening prospect even for him.

He used his two-page InGear column in The Sunday Times to highlight the risks of driving along the road in West Oxfordshire, where he warns the majority of motorists drive on the wrong side of the road.

But in typical Clarkson style, he blames 'the local highway bureaucrats', rather than speeding drivers, for putting him and other motorists at risk.

"So far, I have been lucky," he writes. "But one day, I shall have a head-on accident, and I shall be killed. And everyone will blame the idiot who flouted the law, even though it was the law itself that caused the accident."

The motoring broadcaster argues that the introduction of a 50mph-limit, introduced by Oxfordshire County Council to prevent collisions and bring down the accident rate, has only added to the problems.

He says: "This is extremely dangerous. Because it means that some people do indeed drive at 50mph. And that means that at any given moment in the day or night, over half the traffic on the A44 is actually driving on the wrong side of the road.

"Time and time again I come round a blind bend to find someone with wide eyes and a goldfish mouth heading straight towards me as they try desperately to get past someone in a 50mph-Hyundai."

Clarkson also hits out at A44 motorists who drive below the 50mph-limit, and calls for a minimum speed limit of 60mph on the road.

David Robertson, the county council cabinet member responsible for transport, said: "The A44 used to be a death trap. It was much more dangerous, and there were many more accidents prior to the 50mph limit."

He said the limit was introduced on the Chipping Norton to Woodstock section in 1989, and south of Woodstock about two years ago.

Mr Robertson added: "There are white lines across much of the road. If Jeremy Clarkson kills himself, that is his own responsibility. If other people are killed by the silly actions of others, that is the tragedy of it. Roads in themselves never kill anyone. It is the way people drive on them.

"I cannot find this to be a funny subject. Clarkson should stick to car testing and high-speed off-road japes, or whatever it is they do."