Signs urge drivers to slow down

PUP member Aaron Dowey erects one of the PUP's new signs.

The local branch of the PUP recently purchased a number of signs urging drivers to slow down in the interests of children’s safety.

The move came after discussions with residents in the Darling Avenue area who are concerned drivers using their road as a shortcut are travelling too fast and putting their children’s lives at risk,

They want to see traffic calming measures introduced but given the timescale for getting such work done the PUP stepped in to ‘speed up the slow down’.

Local representative Lexi Davidson told the ‘MAIL’: “We have been working with residents since November/December, they are concerned about cars using Darling Avenue as a shortcut.

“We had been approached about traffic calming measures but that can take up to 18 months to put in place.

“It is only a matter of time before a child is knocked down and we came up with the signage as a way of raising awareness.”

Party members paid for the signs out of their own pockets and, truth be told, have now become victims of their own success with other areas of the town now approaching them to have similar signage erected.

Lexi explained: “We were approached by residents at Ardboe Drive where traffic calming ramps are in place but you have drivers speeding between them.”

It would seem to have developed into a dangerous ‘game’ with drivers racing between the ramps to see how much speed they can build up and how quickly they can get over the ramps.

Lexi said: “It seems to be at its worst at the corners. The policy is to put ramps in place but we feel it would be better to use chicanes to slow the traffic.”

The signs being erected, he stressed are purely a short term measure but action needed to be taken in the long term to ensure children’s safety

He pointed out: “There weren’t as many cars around Mourneview 20 or 30 years ago and it’s only a matter of time before a child is knocked down. People are waiting 18 months for traffic calming measures and when they are put in place they’re not doing the job properly, the policy on ramps needs to be looked at.

“People are claiming for damage caused by speed humps and we need to look at a chicane system.”

He also called on people to report cases of dangerous driving to police.