A man driving his girlfriend to work has been left facing a £1,500 repair bill after being the victim of an alleged hit and run on the A329M.
Stef Bird’s Toyota was involved in a shunt after a black Ford Fiesta pulled out of the M4 lane to stay on to the A329M. Mr Bird said that the driver did this at the last moment without indicating, causing the accident, which also involved another car.
Mr Bird said that the driver of the Fiesta then carried on without stopping. It is possible that the driver was unaware that a collision had occurred.
He told The Wokingham Paper: “I was taking my girlfriend to work, there was a Jaguar in front of me and a black Fiesta on the inside lane merging into the M4.
“At the last second the black Fiesta pulled out without indicating and braked suddenly, forcing the Jag to slam his brakes on and come to a near stop. Luckily the Jaguar stopped in time, but I was not as fortunate.
“Me and the Jaguar driver swapped details and went on our way but the driver of the Fiesta just carried on as if nothing had happened.”
As you can see from our pictures, the damage caused in the incident was quite severe.
And since the changes to the A329M, which came into effect last October, Mr Bird said that he’d witnessed several other near-misses on the road.
“The new layout is so dangerous, I’ve had many near-misses there, one involving an articulated lorry cutting across the hatched lines at the last second.”
Mr Bird reported his near miss on the new Facebook group Fix The A329M. It has been launched to highlight the frustration and anger felt by users of the busy road.
Since its launch, almost 700 people have signed up and vented their frustrations at the new road layout.
The owner of the group said the page’s aim is “to make the Highways Agency aware of the number of road users who feel these modifications are unsafe and inefficient”.
The page is already full of stories from users of the A329M, some reporting near misses, tailgating, and traffic jams.
The page can be found by searching for ‘Fix The A329M’ on Facebook.
