'Our friend was killed on the road he campaigned to make safer'

Sue Golton co-founded an action group after a former councillor, who had campaigned for road safety, died in a crash

The friends and neighbours of a campaigning former councillor who was killed on a road he lobbied to make safer have said they will continue his work.

John Michael Duggan's car was struck by another vehicle as he turned onto the A19 from his home village of Riccall, North Yorkshire, on 1 August.

He had long fought for improvements to junctions along the main route between Selby and York to reduce the number of collisions.

Sue Golton, who co-founded the Riccall Roads Action Group, said: "John was a lovely man. He worked tirelessly to make lives better for other people."

Mrs Golton's husband, a friend of Mr Duggan, was the first person to arrive at the crash scene and called emergency services.

"It affected him deeply," she said.

"Seeing his distress and knowing really that something had to be done, I just felt that we needed to do it."

A skip lorry driver was arrested at the time of the crash.

He was later released under investigation, and North Yorkshire Police said on Monday their inquiries were ongoing.

Mr Duggan had petitioned for a roundabout to be installed at the village's south junction with the A19, half a mile (0.9km) from the spot where he later died.

The campaign to the former North Yorkshire County Council followed a number of road deaths between 2005 and 2007, according to Keith Dawson, who served alongside Mr Duggan on Riccall Parish Council at the time. He was also a Selby district councillor.

"Every death is over a million pounds in costs to the [county] council, so we got their blessing to put a roundabout in," he said.

However, it was never built.

"We don't put a million pounds on somebody's life. To us, it's priceless," Mr Dawson, 73, added.

"If they put 'priceless' in their formula, we'd have a roundabout by now."

John Duggan was a "force to be reckoned with", Mrs Golton said

Following Mr Duggan's death, Mrs Golton, 67, set up the Riccall Roads Action Group with a friend, Laura Lee Patterson.

More than 100 villagers attended their first public meeting, sharing stories of their challenges at the junctions.

John Duggan, pictured with his wife and granddaughter

"When you hear sirens going past, everybody will tell you the same in this village: our heart drops and we think there's been another accident at the junction," Ms Patterson, 31, said.

"The minute we hear a helicopter in the sky, we are on edge. We think it's the Yorkshire Air Ambulance."

As well as a roundabout, she said the group is calling for a reduction in the speed limit on the stretch of the A19 from 60mph to 40mph.

Laura Lee Patterson said "umpteen" near misses had been reported by residents, including her

In documents prepared for an area meeting, North Yorkshire Council said it was preparing to trial a reduction in the speed limit to 50mph.

However, an even lower limit was not deemed appropriate because the section of the A19 is a "heavily trafficked primary route with a straight alignment and very few vulnerable road users".

In a statement, the council's executive member for highways and transportation, Malcolm Taylor, said he was "acutely aware of the strength of feeling in the local community" following Mr Duggan's death.

He said as well as the proposed 50mph limit, news signs alerting drivers to the presence of pedestrians would be added.

However he said the council did not believe a roundabout was "an appropriate long-term solution to the issues", though added that the authority would continue to monitor the situation.

The Labour MP for Selby, Keir Mather, who is supporting the campaign group, said there "certainly" could be a case for 40mph.

He added that the council had "ruled out a roundabout or traffic lights, but these should stay on the table if Riccall is to grow any further".

"I'm concerned that it seems like the risks that people face every day on the junction aren't easily or accurately portrayed when decisions are made about where funding is allocated."

The documents also show that the A19 was the road with the second-highest number of serious crashes across Selby and Ainsty between 2022 and 2024.

However, Ms Patterson said "umpteen" near-misses and "lots of accidents" had not been reported, meaning the authority did not "see the depth of this".

"They just see us at the bottom of the pile," she said.

Campaigner Keith Robson carried out vehicle counts and recorded how long it took drivers to leave the village

Another member of the campaign group, Liz Smith, 57, recalled a crash which she was involved in, caused by "somebody going very fast down this road and overtaking somebody going into the village".

As a result, she avoids turning right to travel south on the A19, instead travelling north and turning around at a different junction.

"It's not just the speed that causes that, it's the traffic. There are no gaps."

The campaign group has gathered evidence to present to the council, including a survey of villagers, and a vehicle count.

Keith Robson, 71, said he had observed road users at different times of day over 10 days.

He also timed how long they were waiting for a gap in traffic to be able to leave the village.

"The longest queue I had was around about six minutes."

Christine and Carl Wolf said they had spent five minutes waiting in the middle of the A19 earlier in the day

Christine and Carl Wolf live on the opposite side of the A19 to the main part of Riccall village, and often cross the road on foot.

As the BBC were filming, they arrived on the side of the road, and waited for about a minute before being able to cross.

However, earlier in the day, they had spent five minutes in the central reservation.

"An ambulance came past while we were stuck in the middle with its lights on," Mrs Wolf, 66, said.

"You feel like you're going to end up under a vehicle."

Mr Wolf, also 66, added: "It's quite frightening, particularly when there's a HGV going past as well because there's a lot of draught."

For people living next to the A19, it can be a "nightmare", according to Jason Hardy.

He is not part of the campaign group but has spent a decade living in "probably the loudest house on the street", approximately 60ft (18m) from the south junction.

"I can count on two hands the number of crashes we've heard on this road," he said.

A few years ago, a car crashed off the A19 and ended up behind Jason Hardy's house

Mr Hardy remembered a collision which resulted in a car landing on his neighbour's garage.

"There's a footpath that runs the length of the A19 and that car went straight through it," he said.

"We've got young kids that use that path."

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