. I think I have listed most of these as they occur .. with the last one leading to a 50 mph limit to be introduced along the length of the current 60 mph and even including where it becomes 70 mph .. around St Helens to Liverpool from recalling the last time I drove along it - some time ago.
Some of the incidents have occurred around the busy sets of lights around Swinton .. beyond the secondary school at Moorside.
There is a speed cam
on each side outside this school.. but no kids can access the East Lancs as the school sealed off the access. A subway enables children and others to cross here. (know the area as I travel to visit my sister who lives in Worsley village and it's where I exit the M61). The speed cam is close to the lights where the 60 mph to Astley ??
(whatever/wherever) starts.
Beyond those lights .. a couple of sets of lights (and I know one of the junctions to lead to Hope Hospital directly). But this is where I understand a 12 year old boy died when crossing the road in the 50 mph zone. Why he chose not to walk a few yards to a footbridge remains a mystery to me
all the same. I do not understand why some one would not use a safe crossing. Even if aged 12. At that age .. we are judged capable of knowing right from wrong in the eyes of English law.
But .. further up.. despite the subway - which I suppose will be a daunting prospect in off -peak times as I gather, from both my sisters who live locally, the local hoodies congregate there..
- claiming it to be a bit of a no-go zone at certain times... and why they think another 12 year old boy decided to cross the busy dual carriageway one twilight evening.. and died. His parents campaigned .. for .. a foot-BRIDGE with lighting on it. They still campaign .. per my sisters. 7 years after their boy died.
Louis crossed the road close to the M61 slips as I understand.. trying to get home to a residential road which was across the way from the then bowling alley (now something else...)
Which background info
brings me around to the point.
Another child. :Last week. Ju-Ju (my "quieter kid" sister
) knows the teachers who taught this lass.
But unlike the other bereaved parents..of more recent years who demand a lower speed limit .. of 50 mph and, allow me to provide a little more of the local lore which I have from my sisters and their "tame neighbour of a long standing councillor and ex-mayor"
) I have to admit that such a speed cannot guarantee survival if hit at this speed... so callous as it sounds . reducing the speed limit to 50 mph is just a meaningless token gesture.. and they cannot make this road 30 mph as it is a congested nightmare at low speeds as they apparently found in the late 70s/early 80s when they upped the limits by 10 mph in each section at the time.
and found it aided dispersal of traffic off peak .. but that the traffic lighted section causes chaos if not synchonised properly.,
Young Katie's parents and pals are not demanding speed limit reductions though. Like Louis's family - they want a footbridge over the junction where Katie was so tragically unlucky to be hit by a car allegedly travelling below the speed limit .. at 50 mph.
I will light a candle for them. I will stop what Iam doing (if I can.. given patients' needs when her funeral takes place.. just to think of a girl my sister Ju Ju tells me was simply beautiful) and to think of her parents who remain serene and dignified despite their loss. I will hope that their campaign is successful .. as I still do for Louis's case.
The A580? Safe enough. .. but I will admit that I would be insisting on chaperoning our kids if on foot there.. even though I know a child of 12 upwards - dependent on their development - will want some freedom and some trust in their maturity from us. But that does not mean we stop worrying.
I admit.. My wife will admit.
We pace the floor .. looking at the clock . glaring at the phone.. when they are 15 minutes later than our agreed time.
If our older three who are all drivers and young IAM and now all three have a RoSPA achievement too.. are LATE.. despite their passing such prestigious reflections of their driving skills.. I admit that perhaps like my own parents before me..
.. I still worry if they are late in returning home from Uni and we insist they call us to let us know of set offs and safe arrivals to wherever.
Now just maybe our obvious concerns and our insistence that all under our roof accept our fair .. fairly "laissez-faire" tolerant discretion to a set point
.. which we think equivalent to that discretion we say professional police officers are normally capable of... are why our own kids and fosters abide by our rules.
By the way .. we teach all kids under our roof . road sense and polite manners. I think it all helps towards that pilgrimage to safety led lives.
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