Call for road safety measures in Skeoge

Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy said that there are concerns some drivers are using the road as a race track and making the lives of local residents a ‘misery’.

“We have been campaigning for safety measure on this stretch of road over the last year and a half,” Colr. Duffy said.

“Work has now started on a safety crossing close to the shop, as it was a major concern having children crossing here.

“While that is a positive move I would call on the Department for Infrastructure and the PSNI to look at further safety measures.”

In the early hours of Thursday morning a car left the road and ended up on a mound of dirt, close to where further houses are being built.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said that police received a report of a single-vehicle road traffic collision on the Skeoge Road at 2:35am on March 11.

They added: “A 27-year-old man arrested on suspicion of driving-related offences was taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries, which are not believed to be life threatening at this time.

“Enquiries are continuing.”

Colr. Duffy said in the last year there have been at least four incidents in the Skeoge area where vehicles have left the road.

“They have ended up on the banking of a roundabout, overturned or crashed through the barriers which are there to protect pedestrians.

“In the past, police have conducted operations which have reduced incidents like this in the area. There are huge issues of safety that need to be addressed and I think that the DFI and the police need to have some sort of response before someone is killed.”

The Colr said more people are walking along the Skeoge Link Road at all times of the day and night, particularly during lockdown, and ‘something needs to be put in place to make it safer’.