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I'm a local and everyone round here knows it's a car killer and take the other route. It used to be a really quiet road until the YouTubers turned up. Now it's just dangerous. It attracts every i**** in the country to come and try their luck. It's crazy, but people actually drive for hours just to go through the ford. When the car park is full, they park on the road blocking the pavement and turning it into a single lane in places. All too often, some poor drivers don't realise just how dangerous the ford is when they arrive after some rain because people take the Road Closed signs down just so they can watch other people kill their cars!
I don't know anyone locally who is stupid enough to go through there any more unless it's during the summer. Apart from the obvious risk of crossing a ford, it's not unusual to see a car driving through when an i**** will come flying round the corner towards them trying to make a huge splash to make sure they get shown on YouTube. You may be keeping the bow wave in front of your bonnet but once the tidal wave from their car hits, it's over the top and into the air intake. What they don't show on those videos is the tyre damage to cars. At times, the bottom of the ford is littered with bits of sharp plastic and metal that once formed a part of someone else's car. The guy who comes to do my tyres is regularly called out to Rufford.
It's fine in the summer. The water's low and there isn't too much debris. I just can't understand why people want to risk their car when the water level is high.
Since the YouTube videos went viral and it started getting busy, the Council have started looking at possible safety changes. They've told the police to start doing something about it and they're looking into a few options to make it safer. I'm told that there's been talk of barrier gates being fitted or cameras put up to send fines out to drivers. My guess is that as gates cost money and cameras make money, they put cameras up.
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