Retired Hack talks to an Islander with a powerful reason to challenge the IW Council’s policy on winter road maintenance. Ed
1979 was the worst year of Robert Jones’s life. Margaret Thatcher’s election victory was bad enough for the Labour activist; and the death of both his ageing dogs didn’t help. But 1979 was also the year in which Robert nearly died when his car overturned on black ice on an Isle of Wight road. His life has never been the same since.
Now he sees our council taking the same risks, blaming a lack of resources and the need to conserve salt. Robert doesn’t think those are good reasons to leave Island roads, especially those in rural areas, like death traps.
This is his story.
‘We hit black ice …’
“My brother Brian and I were going to my home in Freshwater; Brian lived in Ryde, as did Cathy Wilson – then Labour Parliamentary candidate. We hit black ice just beyond that little pub on the middle road, the Blacksmith’s Arms. There had been no gritting/sanding – we spun off the road, through the hedge, into a field of cows.
“It was one of the old Volkswagens – curved roof; so it didn’t cave in and kill the lot of us, as almost any other car would have done. We ended up upside down – I heard my back crack, although hardly felt it at the time. I had been entirely convinced we were all going to die.”
‘Brian had tried to pull me out, and then fainted …’
“I was the only one able to break the glass at the back of the car and crawl through – Brian had tried to pull me out, and then fainted. Cathy – who had a false leg – was trapped by it. I managed to find my way through the cows – surprisingly gentle, in the circumstances – get over the gate, and totter along the road – ignored by many passing cars, who had managed to avoid the black ice – until I reached the farm house.
“I remember knocking on the door, telling them there had been an accident – and then not much else; though I dimly remember the family picking shards of glass out of my hair as they called the ambulance.”
‘I hadn’t grasped that I’d really hurt my back until later …’
“I hadn’t grasped that I’d really hurt my back until later – when I realised my legs weren’t really working, and I had appalling pain in my lower back. We were all taken to Ryde hospital, though not before the Fire Service had dropped Cathy from the stretcher – and there I was told how lucky I’d been because my spinal cord was still intact.
“I had the limited physiotherapy then available for spinal injuries; it was entirely useless. I soon discovered that my only hope of financial compensation would be if I sued my brother, which I had no intention of doing. And of course I hoped that – given I was only 28 at the time – I’d get over it.”
‘I’ve had trouble sleeping, walking, even thinking, ever since’
“Unfortunately, my family is prone to osteo-arthritis, and one great way to bring that on is to suffer a serious accident. Ever since 1979, my spine, hips and neck have deteriorated – I have constant pain; I was on Invalidity Benefit and Incapacity Benefit for a good many years, and am now on Pension Credit.
“I’ve never sought sympathy, because it gets you nowhere, but I’ve had trouble sleeping, walking, even thinking, ever since. I had to stay at home with my parents for much longer than I would otherwise have done, I’m on strong painkillers and anti-depressants.”
‘The point is there’s nothing new here’
“Now – this was a main road. One of the major roads to the West Wight. It IS a long road, I appreciate that. At the time, the cold snap had descended suddenly – a policeman who investigated the incident, asked: “What black ice?”, then promptly fell flat on his back and had to have an anti-anthrax injection.
“The point is there’s nothing new here: we’ve never been prepared for winter on the Island; I have had 30-plus years of pain and disability as a result of my accident. I’ve had my moments, and I’m not complaining. But I’ve never had a day free from pain since 1979; I walk, at 62, like a 72 or 82-year-old, on a stick. I can’t bend down, or squat, or even kneel.
“You get used to that; you find ways of compensating. I’ve not had a bad life – I’m currently joint deputy chairman of St Mary’s Patients Council, and I’ve also been a freelance journalist, off and on, and now paint, and teach, occasionally. But it shouldn’t have happened.”
‘Why are people’s lives still being ruined?’
“Our roads were c**p in 1979, and they’re c**p today. I know there are good reasons for that – I know the substrate of our roads is rubbish, that we’ve got cart-tracks upgraded to major roads – but given the enormous upgrades to local authority salaries, why do we have to put up with such a rubbish road network?
“Why are people’s lives still being ruined, or ended, by the state of our roads? Why does the council pretend we’re “open all year” when we’re so plainly not?
‘I’m here to tell you what happens if the roads are left to turn into an ice-rink’
“They’re saying now that they won’t salt or grit the main road from Niton to Newport – that there are alternative routes.
“Well, yes there are: if you can access them. But the Niton to Newport road is a school bus route. If they won’t maintain it, it’s because they don’t damned well want to, whatever their excuses. And I’m here to tell you what happens if the roads are left to turn into an ice-rink.
“The Council is the ISLE OF WIGHT council; not just Newport and Ryde, but the whole blooming lot. If it can pay councillors to attend meetings, it can pay to make journeys into the county town as safe as they can be. When they proclaim the usual c**p that “Island roads are different”, they actually seems to be proud of it.
“If we can’t do better than this – why do we have an Isle of Wight Council at all?”
Footnotes:
*Robert Jones was from time to time IW Labour Party agent or secretary between 1975 and 1992. He was chairman of the Medina Housing Association from 1991-95. He now lives in Niton Undercliff, and many of his landscape paintings are of local scenes. His gallery can be viewed at www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
*In November, IWC Cabinet member Eddie Giles, whose responsibilities include highways, went on record as saying the island had sufficient salt stocks to see out a harsh winter. We haven’t yet had anything approaching a harsh winter, but we have had a fortnight in which his department’s failure to treat many of our rural roads has led to numerous accidents, some of them involving injuries. OnTheWight is drawing Robert Jones’s story to Cllr Giles’s attention. We await his response.
*OnTheWight wants to hear from readers injured in accidents involving ice on any island road, either this winter or previously. By building a picture of the problem we may be able to help in getting it solved.
Image: At 62, Robert Jones needs a stick to walk with “like a 72 or 82-year-old”
Image: © Barry Fitzgerald, Tralee
