New junction layout ‘is an accident waiting to happen’

The Infrastructure Department has just completed works to create a multi-coloured paved junction at the foot of Wellington Road which it says will reduce vehicle speeds and make the area safer for pedestrians.

The surface includes grey areas for vehicles, pink ‘courtesy crossings’ – pathways which recommend the safest place to cross – and yellow ‘tactile paving’ to help the sight impaired.

But Nicola McAteer, a mother of two, has said the new area is ‘confusing’ and added that the pink area could be interpreted by children as a safe walkway when in fact the right of way is with the traffic.

‘My son has been nearly knocked down on two or three occasions there in the past – it is a dangerous junction,’ said Mrs McAteer, who last year led calls for the road surface around the Millennium Town Park to be changed as she said the lack of differentiation between the carriageway and pavement was dangerous. She started the campaign together with the family of three-year-old Clinton Pringle, who died after being hit by a van on the road.

The Infrastructure Department have said raised pedestrian islands have been removed but are due to be added to parts of the junction in the summer.

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