An Angus mother fears it will take a child to be knocked down before action is taken to slow traffic on a road through her village.
Shona Fraser, from the village of Hillside, fears for the safety of daughter Morgan (8) and her friends trying to cross Main Road on their way to school or to the park.
She says Hillside was “left out” in the provision of traffic-calming measures, such as LED displays showing drivers their actual speed, provided in other villages.
“Every other village (near Montrose) Trinity, Marywell, St Cyrus, Marykirk all have LED signs, showing drivers their speed and telling them to slow down.
“These villages don’t have play parks and schools close to the road as we do.
“Parents are very concerned a child is going to be hit. Even if a car is being driven at 30mph (the speed limit on Main Road) that will kill a child.”
She said her own daughter had just started walking to school, highlighting the dangers for the worried mother.
“I have been watching her crossing with her friends and the cars are going so quickly that the girls are crossing, getting stuck half way over and panicking because they can’t judge the speed of the cars.”
Talking to other concerned mothers, she discovered a neighbour’s daughter had been knocked over.
“She was not injured but obviously very frightened,” said Mrs Fraser. “What we want to try and do is get LED signs put at each end of the road and also want safe places for children to cross the road, whether that’s pelican or zebra crossings, so they have somewhere they know is safe to go and cross.”‘Bizarre’ safety targetsShe is angry that road safety action plans have “targets” for the numbers of road deaths.
“It is just bizarre,” Mrs Fraser went on. “Surely we should have a zero target for children being killed. I know that in Laurencekirk there have been deaths on the road but not enough deaths to allow a flyover to be built.”
She said that a road survey conducted on the Main Road in Hillside identified that cars were going quickly but, as she put it, “not quickly enough” to prompt the provision of traffic-calming measures.
Drivers see a straight road and “just gun it,” putting children and infirm elderly people in jeopardy.
“I know the police have been out here with speed guns but, when a driver sees a policeman in a yellow jacket, they slow down so it doesn’t give a proper picture,” Mrs Fraser added.
“My concern is: does a child have to be knocked over to get anything done? I am just not prepared to wait for that. I want something done and want it done now.”