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.