This just in from the Lancashire Telegraph
After battling the Lib Dems for years in Bristol over transport issues (until 2008), I could never trust or believe anything they say on transport.
However Mr Clegg needs to have a look in his own back yard first :
(most accidents can be reduced by better road design, barriers, lighting etc).
So . . bad driving? Bad horse training ?F.E.Dendy 1904 said:Benton Lane began at Sandyford bridge, and the awkward turn
which existed at this point led to a series of three serious accidents,
the first of which gave the name of ' Lambert's Leap ' to the locality.
In 1759 Cuthbert Lambert, a son of a Newcastle physician, was
riding along Sandyford Lane when his mare took fright and bolted
in the direction of the Benton Lane. Instead of taking the turn at
the bridge, it continued its straight course ahead and jumped the
parapet of the bridge into the ravine below, which was then 45 feet
deep. The fall was broken by the projecting branch of a tree and
the man escaped, but the mare was killed. Twelve years later, in
1771, another similar accident took place at the same spot. A
servant of Sir John Hussey Delaval was riding into Newcastle, when
his horse took fright at the Barras Bridge, ran away with him along
Sandyford Lane and sprang over the parapet into the dene below,
just as Mr. Lambert's mare had done. On this occasion the rider
again escaped with very little injury, but the horse was killed.
Fifty-six years later, in 1827, and for the third time, a similar
accident took place. Mr. John Nicholson, a Newcastle surgeon, was
riding along Sandyford Lane when his horse bolted and leaped
the parapet, kicking down the coping stone, but this time it was the
horse which escaped injury and the rider who was killed.
Nothing changesNewcastle Monthly Chronicle for 1887 said:soon the Drop Well ravine itself, . . . , will be filled up ; and there will be no more need of the parapet wall, and it too shall be levelled and cleared away.