The Road of (Slow) Death


The Blog's newly acquired (we could not get Jeremy Clarkson for contractural reasons) motoring correspondent writes:

Comment has been made previously about strange driving practices along the B6461, particularly along the stretch around Hutton and Paxton. Early last evening I was poodling in the Berwick direction at my standard 55 when behold (or did when he eventually doused his full-beam headlights) a black van man, someone having evidently resprayed a vintage Bedford . Every time the driver hit a pothole, the lights blared up again. He covered the ground between me and him as fast as if he were delivering a human kidney – hopefully not mine. He then overtook (without signalling) and veered (without signalling) into the Paxton cut-off then reduced his speed to normal. Is there something about the Paxton area which makes it into what sounds like the latest Alexander McCall Smith – the Resort of Needful Drivers?

There is certainly something about the B6461-a highway of (near if not sudden) death which used to feature regularly in the proceedings of the Hutton and Paxton Community Council when ever the Fuzz were in attendance. The first Paxton turn off (coming from England, as they do), on a bad corner is a very nasty accident waiting to happen. So many drivers seem to remember urgent business in Paxton at the very last moment or that the Cross has a particularly good Beer of the Month and veer off with no warning. And others seem so desperate to flee the village that they shoot out without observing the traffic on the mainer road.

And at the second turn off- to Paxton and eventually (if you are spared)Greenlaw) you have a choice of turning suddenly towards the village or an equally dramatic hand brake turn to the left into Paxton House with a good chance of marginally reducing the number of local dog walkers which remain in season even when PH is not.

Or of course you can control your instincts and carry on straight to Kelso.

But that would be a pity as you would miss the better Hutton turn off. And that would be a crying shame

(The image is apparently to do with a vehicle test conducted recently on the Fishwick Bypass)

Labels: B6461, bad driving, Hutton, Hutton and Paxton Community Council

  ¶ 10:06 AM