Shortly before the summer break local boy Harry was knocked down and seriously hurt walking home when a white van crashed into him from behind, putting him in a coma.
Last night’s STV News followed up on the accident, reporting on his recovery and return to school whilst looking at issues of pedestrian and cyclist safety in and around the area.
The East Lothian Courier reported on accident victim Harry’s recent recovery from a medically induced coma after being knocked down by the driver of a white van, whilst heading home from school along the edge of the B6363 through Boggs Holdings.
This recent accident is all the more poignant given that the Community Council has been looking at issues of road safety in and around Pencaitland. This followed ELC’s Transport team providing the community with outline plans last year suggesting a number of possible road safety changes.
You can see those original plans and what was proposed by ELC by clicking here.
Tell us your views on the preliminary response to ELC’s plans via email to website@pencaitland.org or by simply leaving a comment on this page. You can also leave a comment in a dedicated box that can be found in the local Pencaitland Post Office.
The Courier report doesn’t shed much light on how the accident happened, but does say that police are appealing for witnesses.
The latest road accident to take place at Pencaitland’s now infamous crossroads involved a young man who crashed into the War Memorial at around 8.20am today. Unfortunately it adds to an ever-growing list of incidents which have occurred at the crossroads as you enter Pencaitland from either Haddington or Tranent.
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Despite recent improvements to the tarmac and road markings, these did little to prevent the latest incident. As resident and community councillor Fiona Tennick explains,”I heard an enormous bang outside my house which is on the corner by this crossroads, and knew immediately that there had been yet another accident at this busy junction.”
“Seeing a car up on the War Memorial, I immediately rang 999 and the emergency services were present within minutes. The vehicle had travelled down the B6355 towards the junction, crossed the central reservation, hit the second flower-tub and spun backwards across the junction, riding onto the War Memorial.”
“By some miracle, given the amount of traffic at that time of day, no-one else was hurt, and the young driver was pulled out of the wreckage by drivers on the scene at the time, before being taken off in a blue-flash ambulance.”
To their credit the emergency services were quick to respond to the incident. A police officer in attendance summed up the problem with the view that it was high time the Council looked at placing traffic lights at the crossroads to slow everything down.
As Fiona Tennick sums up, “I have lived at this corner for more than six years and never cease to be amazed by the speed of traffic travelling out of the village and down the hill towards it. I have lost count of the number of bumps at the junction, on several occasions attended by my daughter and son-in-law, both of whom are doctors. We need a set of traffic lights before there is another death here.”
Q. Have you experienced an incident at these crossroads? If you have please tell us about it with a comment below.