Take action to prevent fatalities

I would like to voice my concerns regarding Moor Lane, Great Houghton. I am absolutely disgusted with Barnsley Council that this road is still not being gritted adequately in this known accident blackspot. It is known that this road has overhanging trees where water sits on the roadside and so when the temperature decreases this culminates in black ice.

After a fatality on this road in February 2011, my partner was involved in an accident one week later on the same road due to black ice and ended up hitting a tree and the car being on its roof in the field, resulting in horrific injuries.

It was the police’s immediate response to ask for gritters to attend the scene before there was another fatality. The gritters were out within 20 minutes on a Sunday morning to the incident. Not bad going, but why had the council not gritted beforehand? Gritters do not seem to be going on this road. I can’t say I have seen one, yet when I have voiced this to the local council I am told that gritting can only take place if the weather is 0ºC. This I find a little bit hard to believe when every other council is gritting their roads and highways

.It has come to the time of year where the temperature is decreasing and the road is becoming an ice rink yet nothing seems to be getting done about it.

Sunday December 4, 2011: accident on Moor Lane, Great Houghton, car overturned due to black ice.

Monday December 5, 2011: accident on Moor Lane, Great Houghton, car overturned due to black ice.

Fatalities have happened on this road – can the council please try and prevent any more by reviewing the way in which this road is looked after during the winter. Let’s try and prevent the accidents not cure them afterwards.