Group call for change in road safety criteria

Fears someone will be killed on rat run streets

Campaigners who want action on rat run roads say South Lanarkshire Council needs to review its criteria for traffic calming measures before someone is killed.

The council carries out an annual assessment of roads to see where may merit action.

But under their current guidelines, only stretches of road that have recorded accidents that led to injury will be considered.

That means roads where cars have knocked down walls or slammed into lampposts will not be looked at.

A report to a recent road safety forum said that the review of roads usually takes place throughout November and December.

It also states the authority faces “challenging” targets set by the Scottish Government to reduce injuries and fatalities on its road network.

However, campaigners say the council could reach the targets quicker by looking further than just accidents that lead to injury.

Brian Welsh, who is leading campaigns to slow traffic down on Broomieknowe Road, said that there had been a number of incidents on the road in the past year

He added: “When you think of four of the accidents this year when vehicles left the road and crashed into poles and steel fences, it was only a matter of luck that no pedestrian was on the footpath at the time.

“Regarding the accident outside my house, where a van was written off as it crashed into the street lighting pole, my neighbours said if the pole was not there my garden wall would have been demolished.

“I was thinking more about would my wife or I survive that crash if we where on the footpath at the time.

“I believe when a vehicle leaves the road, mounts the footpath and demolishes whatever is in front of them then it should be included in the police stats.”

James Aitken, who has called for action at Richmond Drive in Rutherglen, echoed those sentiments.

He said: “I understand that there is a need for some criteria, however to simply say that injuries equate to a dangerous road is too simplistic.

“In Richmond Drive, there are vehicle accidents regularly with constant damage to walls and other vehicles. Fortunately no injuries.

“As a comparison many safety conscious businesses measure Near Misses as this is an indication of potential dangers.

“Do that on Richmond Drive and I suggest with the number of accidents where there was damage we would climb up the stats table.”

Gordon Mackay, South Lanarkshire Council’s head of roads and transportation services said: “Scottish Government has set targets aimed at bringing down the number and of severity of injury accidents.

“Accident trends in South Lanarkshire are still on a downward trend and this has been due to our successful prioritisation methods of treating locations where there are injury accidents occurring .

“The council will continue to prioritise resources to treat locations where injury accidents are occurring, the best available evidence indicates this will contribute towards meeting the national targets.

“In appropriate instances where our own monitoring has established that non-injury accidents have occurred these locations are also examined to assess if additional works would be beneficial.”

It was only a matter of luck that no pedestrian was on the footpath at the time