Speed Concerns ‘Not Reflected In Casualties’ Councillor Asks Officers To Think Again

East Riding Councillors have asked Highways Officers to think again after concluding that Sigston Road residents’ speed concerns “are not reflected in casualties.”

In April this year, following a collision on Sigston Road, 15 year old local resident, Charlotte Burke, organised a petition which was presented to the Council’s Environment and Regeneration overview and scrutiny sub committee in July.

In her petition letter, Charlotte told the Council that things needed to be done to reduce speeding traffic on Sigston Road before another accident happens, and asked for more signs and speed bumps to be put in place. She said that she was petrified to walk down her own street and appealed to the Council to consider the safety of children and residents.

 

At that July meeting, officers were requested to investigate the matter further and report back to the sub committee at its October meeting which took place yesterday.

Officers presented their conclusions which said that their surveys showed that the majority of vehicles don’t speed on Sigston Road and that the road has a good safety record with only three pedestrians bring injured in a collision over the last three years. The report concluded that “concerns about speeding are not reflected in casualties, therefore we cannot justify further speed reducing measures.”

Councillor Denis Healy, who is a member of the Environment and Regeneration sub-committee, and whose Beverley St. Mary’s ward includes part of Sigston Road said:

“It’s astonishing that insufficient casualties or fatalities can be used as a reason for rejecting residents’ concerns about speeding traffic in their area. It seems perverse that we need to wait for people to be injured or killed before speeding restrictions can be justified. Residents who petition this sub-committee don’t do so without good reason, and their concerns don’t deserve to be dismissed so easily. Surely we should be focusing on accident prevention, rather than waiting for some awful accident to happen before taking action.

“I am pleased that the sub-committee has asked officers to think again about this, and to work with residents and ward councillors to see what measures, however small, can be put in place to address their concerns about speeding traffic in this area. I look forward to seeing their recommendations at a future meeting.”