‘One day they are going to hit somebody – driving at 50 to 60mph’
THE WELSH VILLAGE WHERE RESIDENTS ARE PLAGUED BY SPEEDING AND NEAR-MISSES...
“IT’S a nightmare around here – a literal nightmare.” These are the words of residents in a Welsh village who say their cars are constantly being written off or damaged due to speeding cars on a main stretch of road.
Members of the community in Abertridwr say they have growing concerns regarding public safety and recent incidents have left residents on Thomas Street feeling frustrated.
According to campaigners, the village in Caerphilly County Borough has had an influx of damaged vehicles –with many residents having their cars written off multiple times – in recent years. Residents on Thomas Street are also concerned that this is putting the lives of pedestrians, cyclists, children, and other road users at risk.
They say that the speeding situation on the road leading into Abertridwr and Senghenydd has worsened significantly, and claim that they have made several desperate appeals to the council for help but no action has yet taken place. Caerphilly County Council has said it is currently considering a number of matters raised to the local authority.
Dawn Keable has been a resident on the street for 13 years and in that period says she has had three of her cars written off and another car hit and repaired.
She said: “In November 2013, not long after returning from the out-ofhours doctors with our young child, our parked Mitsubishi Colt was hit while parked outside our house. Our vehicle was then shunted into our neighbour’s car.
“In May 2019, again my parked vehicle, a Nissan Qashqai, was hit, resulting in a total write off. In July 2021 my vehicle, a grey Nissan Juke, was hit during the day while it was parked up outside – [but] this time the car was not written off and was repaired. In October 2022, my grey Nissan Juke was parked up at night and was yet again hit. On this occasion, my car was pushed up over the kerb and into my next door neighbour’s wall. This caused my car to be written off. My neighbour Daniel Taylor’s vehicle was also hit.”
Dawn and her husband believe the street would benefit from street lights being turned on in the evening as they say “it is extremely dark on this stretch of the road”. She added: “The combination of it being so dark as you round that bend and the speed that some cars are doing is going to result in further accidents. With the street light off, it made dealing with the aftermath of the accident extremely difficult. This request has not been allowed [by the council] and the street light still remains off.”
Daniel Taylor, 45, moved to Abertridwr in 2017 and claims that at least 10 cars have been written off on the street in the time that he’s been there. He said that two of his cars have been hit, and lost several wing mirrors and one was a “total write off”.
He added that he had a scary experience while putting his child in the car one day: “I was putting my kid into the car and a guy just sped through and took his own wing mirror off while hitting my door – it wasn’t like I was opening my door quickly, it was already open.”
He added: “I have three young children and I’m worried that they’ll walk out onto the street at some point – it’s a very busy road and there’s no mitigation in place to calm traffic.” Daniel says that when it drops down to a single lane, drivers “go way too fast.”
He added: “[They] will pull out and cause traffic jams as neither one of them will give way. I’ve seen that happen several times, just honking horns in the middle of the night at each other.”
Susy Watkins, 49, has lived in the area for two decades. She claims that there are issues with speeding and says drivers don’t tend to stop at the zebra crossing.
She said: “I walk my dogs and have to stop twice and wait to see if they decide [to stop]. Sometimes they say sorry, but they just carry on or ignore you completely.
“I’m an adult and aware of the situation but sometimes I send my [teenage] daughter – they take the dog out and don’t care [to look around]. You have a lot of seven-year-olds and nine-year-olds walking by themselves – they will assume that they’re safe walking across the zebra crossing, but they are not really.”
She added that the visibility of pulling out of the junctions becomes an issue when people ignore the double yellow lines and park their cars at the end of pavements.
Ceri Pepper, 63, has lived on the street for 31 years and said: “It’s a nightmare around here – a literal nightmare. It was never like a main road, it was pretty good, quieter. But in the last five years, it’s just gone ridiculous.”
Ceri claims that it has become extremely difficult to park outside her home and her vehicle has been damaged multiple times.
She added: “Someone ripped the whole side door off as they were going down [the street] – it is a nightmare.” This incident cost Ceri £1,400 to repair her car.
Alan Beavan, 55, has lived on
Thomas Street since 2007. He said he has noticed cars speeding outside his home getting worse since 2015, adding: “One day they’re going to hit somebody – driving speeds of 50 to 60mph. We’re lucky by here but there have been lots of [crashes] down the street.”
According to Go Safe, analysis was conducted in Thomas Street, Abertridwr in both October 2017 and October 2021. On both occasions, a seven day speed analysis was conducted, showing the average speed of vehicles to be 29mph and 27mph respectively.
However, another resident, who wished not to be named, moved to the area in 1966 and said the area has
become a lot busier than when she first moved to the village. She said: “The traffic is terrible and like this all day, from early in the morning to when they come home from work.
“It’s a very bad road and very dangerous. Luckily, not lately, but there have been accidents where they won’t give way for one lot to get through and tooting their horns. I’ve seen them get out of their cars and threaten each other.”
Scott Armitage, 32, is a father of two and has lived in the area for two years.
He said: “We don’t let them [our children] on the street – but there is concern. You know what it’s like when you open the door and come straight onto the road, there is a bit of concern if somebody is speeding and one of them does pull away from you.
“When you walk on the pavement, the cars do come close to you, so they [the children] only have to edge out a bit and get caught [by a car]. There are school drops over there too – so there is a concern.”
Neil Thomas, 42, moved to the street 13 years ago and says during that period he has had two cars written off and two seriously damaged, and is just “waiting for another one to happen.”
He said: “It’s definitely a major problem and even as I’m stood here now, cars are whizzing past. There’s never any enforcement in the area, so people think they have the green light to drive how they want.”
He claims that “there’s nothing at all being done – they’re more concerned about disrupting the flow of traffic as opposed to improving safety on the road.”
He believes that the street lights being turned off in the evening also contributes to the issue, as it leaves the village “pitch black” which doesn’t help. He added: “As we’re in a valley, it’s really dark, there’s no lighting at all.
“The last guy who crashed into our car was a taxi driver from out of the area. He said he couldn’t see where he was going despite having his lights on his car.”
Residents who spoke to the Echo believe that either speed cameras, speed monitors, average speed cameras, speed bumps, or better street lighting could help deter drivers from speeding on the roads and damaging their cars.
Councillor John Roberts of Aber Valley lives on the main stretch of the road and said that there is a traffic issue which is frustrating for the community.
He said that the valley would benefit from street lights being turned on in the evening, more security cameras – as they only have four in the valley – and enforcement for the 20mph speed limit.
He said: “I welcome it [20mph speed limit] if it works properly, but I don’t think there’s any point bringing it in if we just bring it in and don’t do what’s needed after, which is enforcement – we need it to go with it.”
A statement from Caerphilly County Council said: “We are in receipt of correspondence detailing a number of issues for consideration by the council and other agencies and we are currently considering the matters raised.”
A statement from Go Safe said: “GoSafe work closely with communities to ensure that we enforce in the right place, at the right time, for the right reason.
“We encourage people to get in touch if they’re worried about speeding in their area.
“GoSafe analyse both collision data and any historic enforcement data, complete speed surveys, and evaluate the locations suitability for different types of enforcement.
“This analysis was conducted in
Thomas Street, Abertridwr in both October 2017 and October 2021.
“On both occasions, a seven day speed analysis was conducted, showing the average speed of vehicles to be 29mph and 27mph respectively.
“Three years of personal injury collisions were also checked. The data assessed in 2021 showed two slight injuries, with one listing speed as a possible causation factor.
“Analysis on both occasions concluded that the road did not meet criteria for establishing mobile speed enforcement.”