Motorists are taking ‘life in their hands at death trap roundabout’
DRUMCHAPEL motorists are forced to take “their life in their hands” at a “death trap” roundabout in the area, councillors have warned.
Cllr Paul Carey and Bailie Malcolm Balfour fear a lack of traffic lights at the busy Drumry roundabout will cause a major accident.
Three deaths have already occurred near to the site since 2006 with an eightyear-old girl, and two men, aged 24 and 48-years-old respectively, losing their lives in separate incidents.
Now councillors insist it’s only a matter of time before a fatal crash occurs at the roundabout and have urged two local authorities who share joint ownership of the site, Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire Council, to intervene.
Cllr Carey told the Evening Times: “For the last decade I have been calling for traffic lights to be put on Drumry roundabout to be operated during morning and tea time rush hour.
“Throughout the years there has been a great deal of accidents on that roundabout – we have even had cars go straight through the roundabout as they are approaching Glasgow from West Dunbartonshire and a number of cars hitting the pedestrian barrier on the left hand side due to taking the roundabout too fast.
“I have always considered this road to be a dangerous road, that is why I fought for the speed limit to be reduced and for the lanes to come down from three to two. However, I am still at a loss as to why West Dunbartonshire are not even considering putting temporary traffic lights on this roundabout along with Glasgow.”
Bailie Balfour added: “I’m more than happy to talk to our colleagues at West Dunbartonshire to get their opinion on it.
“I think it’s an issue and I think it’s necessary to include traffic lights. I’ve said for a long time it’s a bad accident waiting to happen.”
Both councils said they are open to the idea of talks.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “Recent monitoring of traffic at the roundabout found that the flow of traffic to be generally satisfactory, although some delays maybe expected during peak times.”
“Given the limited space there would be for vehicles to wait on the roundabout, we are concerned that installing traffic lights would actually reduce traffic flow roundabout.
“We focus our resources on locations where we have the greatest road safety concerns and we are aware of two recorded accidents at the roundabout in the past three years that resulted in any kind of injury.”
A West Dunbartonshire spokeswoman added: “We have not received any formal inquiries regarding this matter from Glasgow City Council however would be happy to engage with them to establish their views. We are not aware of any prevalence of accidents at this location.” at the