Government has earmarked $500,000 for traffic calming measures on a stretch of road notorious for crashes.
The 1.5-mile stretch of Shamrock Road at Spotts, known as Spotts Straight and described by government as a “hazardous corridor”, has been the site of six fatal crashes since January, with three people killed on the road in one week in July alone.
Excessive speeding was one of the primary causes of these fatalities, according to government, with drivers on the road often ignoring the 40mph speed limit.
Following a recent meeting of the National Road Safety Committee (NRSC), action is now being taken in collaboration with the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing, Infrastructure, Transport & Development (PAHITD).
The money will be spent on several measures, including raised pedestrian crossings and rumble strips to reduce speed. Lane barriers will be installed along the centre of Spotts Straight to prevent overtaking, and extra speed limit signs and warnings will be in place by Christmas.
There will also be a new roundabout at the junction of Poindexter Road and Shamrock Road to reduce vehicle speeds and improve the flow of traffic. The roundabout is expected to be completed by the end of March next year.
Eric Bush, PAHITD chief officer and NRSC chairman, said in a statement, “Our primary responsibility is to create safe, resilient roadways that reflect our commitment to public welfare. This funding will enable the NRA to implement evidence-based solutions that address the root causes of accidents and ensure the long-term safety of all road users.”
Accident black spot
One person was killed and another person was seriously injured in a crash on Shamrock Road on 6 July, after two vehicles collided at 2:30am near Pasture Drive. The two drivers were taken to hospital and sadly one of them, a 60-year-old man from East End driving a Honda Fit, was later pronounced dead by doctors.
Just a few days earlier, a man and a woman travelling west on Shamrock Road at 2am were both killed after their BMW veered into the eastbound lane and collided with a utility pole and concrete wall.
On 13 May, three people died in a fatal crash on Shamrock Road near Coral Bay Village at about 12:15am in a five-vehicle crash in which two vehicles caught fire.
Another single-vehicle collision took place on Shamrock Road on 24 June near Christian Berry Drive, where four people were injured with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The government’s National Road Safety Strategy aims to reduce road fatalities by 30% by 2028 and cut them altogether by 2038.
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OMG so drunk drivers crashing after midnight means we all have to put up with another traffic snarling roundabout!!!!!!!
How many drivers have been convicted of speeding on this road in the last 12 months.The number of drivers who did exceed the speed limit in this period must run into the tens of thousands, based on hundreds being guilty of this every day.
Have they truly thought this through? Yes people have died because someone was speeding and that is sad. But what about the thousands of us who do not speed? The food is being penalized for the few who do not follow rules. And those persons will find alternate routes. Most likely the east west arterial road. Will they then put speed bumps there too? Think about the ambulances who are trying to assist in saving lives. Fire trucks! Tourist who anre not expecting to find a speed bump in the middle of a main “highway”! Even regular people trying to get to work. Now our time to George Town will be longer without traffic! 😔😔😔😔
Surely, placing an officer or two in the area periodically during the night would be a better approach to deter speeding and reckless driving without adding to the frustration and inefficiency of our roads during commuting hours. Traffic already jams up at pretty much every roundabout on the island because they cannot handle the volume of traffic that is on our roads and our planners should be trying to make that situation better, not worse!
Placing more obstacles in the road makes them more dangerous, not safer. Each barrier or intersection is actually a traffic hazard that drivers must navigate, so placing more of them than needed is making the road more dangerous by design instead of safer, especially when you consider that the speeding and impaired drivers are already risking their lives (and those of other road users) by operating their vehicles unsafely. Without enforcement or the tangible threat of it, there will be no change in behaviour and they will either crash into the new barriers, the unnecessary roundabout, or something on another stretch of the roadway.
By now, there should be enough statistics about whe the fatal collisions are occurring to be able to make sure police patrol the area at those times. It is common knowledge that our traffic police are scarcely found on the roads between midnight and 4 a.m. so they can start with that.
Can we please use some common sense before wasting money on making our commutes even more aggravating than they already are?