Council pledges to consider speed cameras at death crash site
A CAMPAIGN for speed cameras and crash barriers to be installed at the scene of a fatal road collision will be looked at in detail, Birmingham City Council’s leader has vowed.
More than 26,000 people had backed a petition for safety measures at Belgrave Middleway, Edgbaston, after six people were killed in a threecar crash in the early hours of December 17.
On Tuesday the council’s business management committee ruled for an overview and scrutiny panel to investigate the possible measures further, rather than a full council debate.
Council leader Ian Ward said: “Obviously this is a very serious matter. I think it does need some careful and considered scrutiny and it needs a piece of work with a small number of members looking at this in some detail, rather than debated at full council which won’t achieve that.”
Father-of-six Imtiaz Mohammed, aged 33, who was driving a taxi died in the collision as did his two passengers; sign language interpreter Lucy Davis, 43, and her scientist boyfriend Lee Jenkins, 42. The other three victims – Kasar Jehangir, 25, Tauqeer Hussain, 26 and Mohammed Fahsha, 30 – were travelling in an Audi involved in the crash.
A petition with more than 20,000 signatures usually triggers a full council debate, but officials on the authority determined that thousands of the names were not ‘valid’ because they did not come from Birmingham.
As a result the 8,717 signatures meant it had to go before the business management committee to decide the next step. Relatives of the victims did not attend the meeting.
Councillor Mike Ward (Lib Dem, Sheldon) said: “It seems what the petitioner wants is action to be taken. I don’t think they are too bothered about how the council does it.”
The West Midlands Police investigation into the collision is still ongoing. Full inquest hearings into the deaths of the six victims are scheduled to resume at Birmingham Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, May 29 and Wednesday May 30.