A campaigner has launched a bid to improve safety on one of Newcastle’s busiest roads, after being left shaken by a recent car crash.
Shabs Mohammed is calling for new speed warning signs to be installed on Westgate Road, after witnessing two cars collide in a smash close to The Beacon on May 22. The 41-year-old says there are “constant accidents” on the packed street running through the city’s west end and that “something needs to be done” to prevent another tragedy in an area that has suffered several serious road incidents over the years.
She is organising a petition to campaign for electronic speed warning signs and a defibrillator to be put in place, as well as staging public meetings this month in the hope of raising awareness of the dangers – particularly for children and elderly people. Shabs, who is running a social enterprise pilot at the nearby DiverCity Hub, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that people have been left “very frightened and angry” by the history of crashes on Westgate Road.
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She said: “This is a place where lots of people are crossing the road, where lots of people are coming to get the bus. I am really worried about the lack of awareness that local people have of the dangers and that drivers have as well. I don’t think enough is being done about it.”
Past incidents have included a driver losing control of their vehicle and crashing into a crowd of people outside the Westgate Community College in 2017, leaving seven injured, and a fatal bus crash in 2011 that killed a pensioner. Shabs, who is also a chaplain and a local activist with the Labour Party, is planning to take her safety mission into local mosques, schools, and the city’s universities and has also raised the possibility of safety wardens being deployed at busy times of the day.
She added: “I went up to the Great Park recently and they had some good electronic traffic signs telling people how fast they are going – something like that would be ideal for here. We have three or four bus stops in that area used by a lot of elderly people and children and it is somewhere where you have lots of cars turning in and out, going to the garage and down side streets.
“What we also want is for a defibrillator to be installed. There have been a couple of accidents here over the years where people have died or have suffered brain damage.
“That is tragic and I see these car accidents happening all the time here. We have a community project running where we are teaching first aid and how to resuscitate people. But, to be honest, I worry that if there was an emergency today most people would just freeze – I don’t think the confidence is there in the community yet.”
A public meeting is being held at the DiverCity Hub, in Buckingham Street, this Sunday, June 4 at 4pm. Newcastle City Council and Northumbria Police were both contacted for comment.
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