Call for action after series of road crashes
CONCERNED residents have called for traffic calming measures to be introduced on a main road after a series of collisions.
We revealed this year how Blackburn Road is the most dangerous road according to Lancashire County Council highways figures, with 63 accidents in the last three years.
Residents said they are now concerned for their children’s safety and have called for new crossings to be introduced to slow down traffic and make it safer for pedestrians to cross.
Farhat Kareem, who lives on Blackburn Road, said: “I have five children and my youngest is four and I really do get scared when she goes onto the road. The cars come up and down really, really fast. I’m not sure if the speed camera there is working. They are speeding and overtaking each other. I’ve lived on Blackburn Road for 15 years and seen quite a few collisions.
“Maybe they could put some speed humps because even with a zebra crossing they will drive through it. Years ago you could cross safely but now you have to wait for the driver to stop and some don’t stop.”
Hyndburn Chamber of Trade president Shahed Mahmood, who also lives on Blackburn Road, said the road has become a ‘race track’ in recent years.
He said: “From Tremellen Street all the way up to the miniroundabout on Blackburn Road it seems to be like a race track.”
Lancashire County Council (LCC) said there have been 11 collisions in the last five years between Lonsdale Street and Tremellen Street.
Two of the incidents resulted in ‘serious injury’ and both were ‘put down to pedestrians failing to look before crossing’. Mr Mahmood added: “If you look at the times of the accidents it’s between 4pm and 7pm and that’s when young kids are going to the mosque.
“With a growing population and a new mosque being built there’s more and more people. We need some sort of zebra or pelican crossing and traffic lights between that stretch.”
LCC said a condition of the new Keepmoat housing renewal development will see a new puffin crossing between Barlow Street and Sidings Way and the removal of the ‘existing pedestrian refuge.
Marcus Leigh, LCC highways manager, said: “Blackburn Road is a very busy A-road and, while there are a number of injury collisions every year, our previous investigations have found there is no pattern to them which suggests that we could reasonably put in place engineering measures to reduce them, as the incidents are not clustered at particular locations, or result from similar circumstances.
“We’re aware of community concerns about speeding, and Blackburn Road is a site where mobile speed enforcement is carried out by the police as part of the Lancashire Road Watch Programme.”
An eight-year-old girl was one of three people to suffer minor injuries after a three-car collision on Blackburn Road in Accrington on August 23.
It followed another collision on June 1 involving a girl, three, and a boy, aged five and a accident on January 16 when a male pedestrian was taken to hospital with head injuries. Lancashire Police said no arrests have been made in connection to any of the incidents, and they were not speed-related.