Concerned road safety campaigners meet MSP
Members of a road safety awareness group have met Motherwell and Wishaw MSP Clare Adamson to raise awareness of their campaigning.
Collective Lanarkshire (CLan), based in Motherwell, paid a visit to Holyrood and met members of the Cross Party Group on Accident Prevention and Safety Awareness, which is chaired by Ms Adamson.
The charity’s members are a collective advocacy group for adults affected by learning disabilities across North Lanarkshire
They have decided to focus the group’s efforts on raising awareness of their difficulties negotiating the busy traffic and road crossings in North Lanarkshire.
Charity member John Johnstone led a presentation to emphasise the problems the members have faced in their lives when it comes to road safety.
He said: “We speak with one voice so that we are louder and can be heard more clearly.
“We had a long talk about the problems we face in our day-to-day lives and I suggested Road Safety.
“In a lot of streets, there is not enough lighting so that we can see where we are going. Some of us don’t have very good eyesight.
“Some of us don’t have very good balance and many of us don’t have very good hearing.
“As well as all of this, some drivers shout at us. They shout names out of their windows because they think we are drunk because we walk a different way.
They shout at us if we take a bit longer crossing the road.
“All we want is to be able to live our lives safely – the same as other people. We are not different; we can die crossing roads too.”
Bob Bogle, from North Lanarkshire Advocacy, helped found CLan two years ago and facilitates the group which meets monthly in the premises of Potential Living – a Third Sector support provider in Motherwell.
He said: “CLan have found their common voice and they want to use that strong voice to make life safer and better – not just for us but for all the inhabitants of North Lanarkshire.
“They are a great example of collective advocacy and group action - they do us all proud.”
SNP MSP Ms Adamson admits she was blown away by the strength of feeling of the charity’s members on the issue.
She said: “The group’s members were incredibly engaging and it is hard not to be moved by their campaign.
“What they are asking for is actually fairly simple.
“That is adequate provision of safe crossings and more consideration from drivers but we heard of the consequences when these basic safety provisions are neglected.
“Even when the members are careful crossing roads and even when they are with their support workers, all it takes is for a driver to be distracted, a car going too fast or lack of safe crossings for a tragedy to strike.”