The mayor of Bedford has said he will order an urgent review of the Manton Lane traffic light phasing after videos showing a parent and child almost being run over while crossing the road on a green man signal.
The danger of crossing Manton Lane was recently raised by the Bedford Independent after a reader asked us to highlight traffic issues and the dangers of walking their children to Busy Bees nursery on the lane.
Read: Bedford parent raises Manton Lane safety fears as council and schools dispute concerns
Now, Siobhan Woolmer-Brennan has shared two videos showing the green man appearing for less than five seconds, and her husband and children caught in the middle of the road when cars attempt to enter the lane.
Speaking to the Bedford Independent, Ms Woolmer-Brennan said: “For the third time in two weeks, here is evidence of the insufficient road safety in Bedford.”
“In the first video, my husband was with my four-year-old son. If he had crossed when the green man showed, my son would have been seriously injured or died,” added Ms Woolmer-Brennan.”
The videos show four cars passing through the crossing as pedestrians try to cross.
Two cars in the second video are being driven by learner drivers with an instructor or driving examiner, suggesting that cars are being given permission to enter Manton Lane with a green light while the green man at the crossing is still on.
In an email to several people at Bedford Borough Council and local politicians, Ms Woolmer-Brennan expressed her anger.
“If any harm comes to my family as a result of this council’s inability to improve its safety, I will consider every person on this email chain completely liable.
“I will not accept another response that prioritises ‘driver frustration’ over the risks to my children’s lives,” she wrote.
Urgent review
The Bedford Independent asked the mayor to view the videos and asked why there had been no progress in improving road safety, despite reassurances to our readers two weeks ago that children’s safety was an issue he took “very seriously”.
Read: Letters: Responses to Manton Lane traffic concerns
In a statement to this news desk, Mayor Tom Wootton (Conservative) said he’s now instructed officers to conduct an urgent review.
“After reviewing the footage, I am not yet convinced that the pedestrian green phase is visible for as long as it should be,” he said.
“I have instructed officers to urgently review the operation of these traffic lights, and an engineer will be attending the site as a priority to determine whether there is any fault.
“If there is no fault and the assessment finds that the system is operating as designed, I will ensure that options are brought forward quickly to extend the pedestrian green phase to a more appropriate duration.”
Ms Woolmer-Brennan has now urged others to contact the council to express their concerns in the hope that the more people who highlight this issue, the quicker the situation will be resolved.
As an ethical news publisher, we are only showing screenshots of the video to protect drivers’ identities.
There is no suggestion that drivers in the video or screenshots are breaking the law, and the video screenshots are included solely to highlight the issue with phasing between the traffic lights and the pedestrian crossing.
