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05
Apr
Fatal A61 crash: ‘I can see where my dad was killed from my window – it’s torture’
A woman whose elderly father was involved in a fatal collision on the A61 between Harrogate and Killinghall has reiterated her plea for the speed limit to be reduced.
Paulina Burton, 62, is the daughter of Lucjan Wilk, who died after being hit by a car on the stretch of road near Knox Mill Lane in November 2023.
Mr Wilk, who was aged 90 when he died, got off the bus at the northbound stop towards Killinghall. He had been to visit his wife at a care home in Harrogate – as he did daily – and was crossing the road to return to the house he shared with his daughter, son-in-law and grandson when he was struck.
His inquest was held on March 24, when the coroner concluded the driver who hit Mr Wilk was driving under the 40mph speed limit.
Despite this, Paulina feels the speed limit on the road is too high and called on North Yorkshire Council to reduce it.
The Stray Ferret last week reported the northbound bus stop, where Mr Wilk had alighted shortly before his death, has been relocated closer to Grainbeck Lane and a number of streetlights installed.
However, the council told us the road “does not fit the criteria for reducing the speed limit to 30mph”.
The Stray Ferret visited Paulina earlier this week, who became emotional when speaking about her father.
She said she was always attached to her parents, no matter what she was doing.
“Whatever I did, I brought them with me everywhere”, she says.
Paulina still lives in the house she shared with her father and can see the road he was killed on from her kitchen window.
In a tragic twist of irony, Paulina moved to the area from Leeds Road in Harrogate due to concerns over road safety. She adds:
I always think somebody has cursed me with this because I moved from Leeds Road thinking I was going to have a peaceful, quiet life. And from that, tragedy. When you combine it all together, it’s like someone has cursed me.
Lucjan Wilk
The collision
Paulina recounted the hours leading up to her father’s death.
The two of them visited her mother in the care home together, but Paulina returned home earlier.
It was November, so the clocks had changed not long before the fatal day. Paulina said she told her father to come home a little earlier due to it being so dark.
“But my dad being my dad he was just like: ‘yeah, ok’”, Paulina says.
She adds:
It was a normal day. I was standing in the kitchen cooking and, because I can see the road from here, I could see all this traffic that wasn’t moving.
Then, it was like somebody whacked me around the head and I just knew straight away. I knew there was something wrong with my dad – it just clicked.
Paulina’s husband walked down to the road to find out what was happening, before calling his wife to confirm Mr Wilk had been hit.
Paulina remembers hearing an air ambulance land near her house, describing the noise as “like an earthquake”.
She told the Stray Ferret she can’t avoid her father’s death, particularly because she has to travel on the stretch of road where he was killed almost daily.
I can’t escape it – it’s torture – and my health has declined because of it.
I know my mum was sick, but my dad kept her alive. They were like an unbreakable team. When we told her he had died, she just kept saying: ‘no, he must just be lost somewhere’.
Paulina’s mother died just weeks after her father’s death, but she believes her mother would have lived longer had her father still been alive.
The new northbound bus stop on the A61 at Killinghall.
'I'm never going to be happy until this is sorted'
The council also told the Stray Ferret it had removed the southbound bus stop entirely, and a council officer told Mr Wilk's inquest the authority had installed larger 'warning' signs on the road.
Councillor Keane Duncan, the executive member for highways and transportation, last week said the changes on the A61 will "will help to reduce the risk of future collisions".
We asked Paulina if she is satisfied with the council's measures.
She said:
They’ve done it, but no amount of lights, no amount of signs, no amount of anything will make a difference.
Nothing is going to change unless there’s a 30mph speed limit. When you see a “30” sign, you automatically slow down – that’s the only thing that would help in this area.
The road is effectively sandwiched between two other 30mph zones – the A61 Ripon Road and the A61 through Killinghall – so, Paulina said she was “absolutely shocked” to hear it did not meet the criteria of a 30mph zone.
During her father’s inquest, a named police officer was asked if felt the 40mph speed limit on the stretch of road was suitable.
He told the court he believed it would “beneficial” to maintain the 30mph speed limit along the road.
“We were so positive after hearing that”, Paulina says.
She added:
I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’m never going to be happy until this is sorted. I ask myself: 'does this mean I’m going to have to move again?'
I love it here, but it’s torture.
Lowering the speed limit would be the only kind of justice for my dad. That would be the only positive thing that could come out of my dad’s death.
Paulina told the Stray Ferret she feels “in the dark” about the situation and is unsure what the next steps would be.
Previous fatalities
The council last year approved plans to reduce the speed limit on a section of the A61 following a string of fatalities at South Stainley.
A mother and two children, who were from Ukraine but were living in Ripon at the time, were killed in a three-vehicle collision involving a double-decker bus on September 3, 2023.
Just eight days prior, a 59-year-old motorcyclist was killed on the same stretch.
Three cars were involved in the collision, including a Land Rover Discovery and a van.
The incidents led to calls for change on the road, including a plea from a South Stainley woman whose parents were killed in a collision on the A61.
In October, the council approved plans to reduce the speed limit on the road between Ripon and Ripley from 60mph to 50mph. This has yet to be implemented.
Conservative MP Sir Julian Smith urged the council to take further action to improve road safety on the A61. He asked council chief executive, Richard Flinton, to also consider removing the overtaking lane at South Stainley.
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