Car accident prone street gets covered in bubble wrap to prevent crashes

After being named and shamed as the most car accident-prone street in Britain, Somerville Road in Worcester was wrapped in bubble wrap to help safeguard the road's clumsy residents during January 2010's treacherous weather conditions.

Everything from cars, bins, lamp posts and even garden gnomes were wrapped in over 1,500 sq metres of the safety blanket in a ploy by a car insurance firm to highlight the dangers of driving in the winter.

Aptly named 'Accident Avenue', the street has had around ten claims a year for ten years, which, considering its small size, makes it the most accident-prone road in the whole of the UK.

Covering it in bubble wrap was therefore seen as a necessary stunt by one car insurance firm as a way of reminding residents to drive more carefully in the bad weather to prevent more claims being made.

The stunt took over 12 hours to complete and took the efforts of eight men who succeeded in managing to even cover some of the houses with the pop-tastic wrapping.

One Somerville Road resident said it was a shock to see all the houses wrapped up.

He said: "I live just up from the houses that were wrapped up so the sight of them all covered up took me a bit by surprise."

"I think it is a really amusing idea, although I don't know how long it will be until someone starts popping the bubbles."

While the stunt obviously must have been a pretty funny sight to see and also may have given residents hours of fun popping the bubbles, it also had a serious underlying message as the head of the insurance company in charge of the stunt felt it important to state:

"The recent freezing temperatures have turned roads across the country into treacherous territory and with the unsettled weather expected to continue, motor insurance is expected to soar.

"In times of need we bubble wrap all our little breakables to keep them safe and sound so why not a whole street?"

Perhaps if the stunt helps bring down the number of accident claims and lessens the number of personal injuries that the street residents incur, the idea may be replicated elsewhere and we may see more and more streets go under the wrap.

Alternatively, given their high rate of car crashes and compensation claims, it may be worth the whole street going on an intensive driving course to try and improve their driving skills and teach them some crash avoidance techniques to try and stop them being in car accidents in the first place.

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