Motorists were today warned that they will face fines of up to £1,000 as part of a zero-tolerance approach to those who flout new road layouts at Gas Place.
Last month parish authorities blocked traffic from driving down Gas Place onto Oxford Road as part of safety changes recommended following the death of Clinton Pringle. The Scottish infant was knocked down and fatally injured on Tunnell Street – on the other side of the Millennium Town Park – in June last year.
Silvio Alves, director of technical and environmental services for St Helier, said: ‘It is only a matter of time before there is an accident and someone gets hurt, if people keep ignoring the signs. It is right next to the park and there are children there. This needs to stop.’
Parish officials, the JEP has been told, witnessed one driver ‘brushing her hair’ who missed a no-entry sign and then scraped her car on waist-high bollards which block traffic from driving onto Oxford Road.
Another driver was also seen ‘putting their foot down’ driving the wrong way down Gas Place towards Bath Street after getting confused by the signs.
Mr Alves said that UK inspectors have been in the Island monitoring the changes to the road layout and were stunned by the poor driving.
‘They have been shocked by motorists,’ he said. ‘It has come to a point where we cannot keep people down there telling drivers what to do and now we are going to have to start getting tough. We see some people ignoring the signs time and again. Someone is going to get hurt and then it will be the parish that is blamed.’
Since Friday 29 September, traffic turning into Gas Place from Bath Street can now only go as far as Apsley Road before coming to the no-entry sign. Vehicles then have to turn north up Apsley Road, which is one-way. Vehicles can come south down Chevalier Road, which is also one-way, from Stopford Road but once they reach Gas Place they can only turn right and back up Apsley Road. Traffic is blocked from turning towards Oxford Road by bollards.
Parish officials have seen vehicles travelling the wrong way up and down both Apsley and Chevalier Roads.
Mr Alves said: ‘I think lots of people are so used to the old system they forget and are not paying attention. They are on auto-pilot. Some know and are just trying to take a short cut.
‘We have had people down there trying to help since the changes were made. They have excused people going through no-entries or missing signs, but I am not sure if there is much more we can do.
‘It is happening daily and it has got even worse in the past week. We are getting reports from residents but sometimes their photographs are not clear enough for us to see a registration. We have seen cars parked on the paved area [which is now pedestrianised]. They are using it as their car park.’
