Resident urges action before tragedy occurs
Claim family could die on day out due to road dangers
Safety concerns on the A84 at the turn-off to Blair Drummond Safari Park must be addressed ‘before blood is spilled,’ according to a nearby resident.
Archie Coulson, lives at Mill o’Torr Cottage around 300 yards from the danger spot with his wife, Annie.
He says that road bosses need to ‘use their eyes rather than criteria’ when assessing whether further safety measures need to be put in place.
The Observer reported last week how fears had again been raised over the busy stretch of A84 at the junction with the access rorad to the safari park.
Transport bosses have opted not to re-align the road layout as it does not meet the qualifying criteria because of the low number of deaths recorded at the nightmare junction.
Mr Coulson has lived near the attraction for the last seven years and he believes the figures used as part of Traffic Scotland’s criteria for re-designing the road do not adequately represent the problems posed by the junction.
An angry Mr Coulson said: “Our house is a just a few yards beyond the Safari Park entrance. Many weeks in the summer there are accidents at the turn-off from the A84.
“So far I’m not aware of any deaths, though I have seen ambulances in attendance.
“Your article quoted a spokesman for Transport Scotland giving the criteria or body count required to provoke action. This junction is dangerous but the annual volume of traffic is obviously not high enough with the park only open in summer.
“The measurement is out by almost 50 per cent.
“The last two or three weeks since the schools came out they have been going in to the park three or four to a car in a continuous stream.
“The entrance is not difficult to improve. We have examples at Dobbies with its turning lane or the Auction Mart with its roundabout.”
In February 2015, queue warning signs were erected at the junction between the A84 and entrance to the park.
Mr Coulson added: “Queue warning signs seem a slight improvement but until Transport Scotland use their eyes rather than ‘criteria’ the risk of a young family on a day out dying is real. Can Transport Scotland and Stirling Council get together and resolve this problem before blood is spilled”
A spokesperson for Transport Scotland reiterated their stance that they annually assess the safety performance of the trunk road network by screening locations where three or more personal injury accidents had occurred in a three-year period.
This, they say, is not the only criteria considered when assessing existing road layouts.