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Former St George mayor calls for action at dangerous junction

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Call for action: Kenny Bascome is among residents in St George who want better traffic control at the foot of Wellington Lane. (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

Residents in an East End neighbourhood are calling for better traffic control at a dangerous junction.

People who live near the intersection of Wellington Lane and Mullet Bay Road in St George’s have complained about motorists speeding through the area, despite blind corners.

Kenny Bascome, a former mayor of St George, said the crosswalk and road warnings urging people to be careful had faded away.

He said: “I’ve seen people get touched by traffic and come back and have a conversation about it. No one’s ever been knocked down, but if you walk at night, you never know what could happen.

“In the morning everyone comes out like a bat out of hell. We’ve got so many children on top of Wellington Hill going to school.

Call for action: Kenny Bascome is among residents in St Geoerge who want better traffic control at the foot of Wellington Lane. (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

“The neighbourhood has grown – there’s a lot of families in the area now that weren’t here before and I’m just concerned that someone’s going to get seriously injured.”

Mr Bascome, 74, said that the road was most dangerous in the evening and early in the morning “when people are going to work and children are going to school”.

He added that the junction had been a problem for years but it started to affect him personally after he had a stroke in December, 2020.

The former One Bermuda Alliance MP said that he now crossed the street to catch his bus every day – but most motorists did not see the faded crosswalk, which put him and others in danger.

He added that those who do see it might even speed through the area to avoid stopping.

Mr Bascome said: “There’s a little raise in the road, so you’ll find that people in a bike or car give themselves more gas.”

According to Mr Bascome there are warnings on the road that indicated blind corners and intersections but that they were so old that they were easy to miss.

He added that even the yellow road line had faded, leading to many motorists crossing into the next lane without noticing.

Mr Bascome said that he had brought this problem to the parish council and other groups for years, all of whom had said they would repaint the road once the Belco road work in the area had been completed.

But he added: “In the meanwhile, how many accidents can we have?”

The scene at the foot of Wellington Lane. (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

Scott Stallard, 66, who has lived in nearby Wellington Park all his life, said that speeding was a major problem that made the road dangerous for pedestrians and motorists alike.

He said: “You can come up to the road and look left and right and see no one, but if someone’s going 50km/h on a bike, by the time to pull out they’re right behind you.”

Mr Stallard added: “If someone’s going 20km/h one way and 40km/h the other way that’s a 60km/h collision that could kill somebody.

“And yet the only thing stopping it is a little yellow line that is barely there any more. The difference between life and death in Bermuda is inches.

“Speed is what’s killing people in Bermuda. It’s not drugs, it’s not alcohol – it’s speed.”

He added that more police presence in the area would significantly cut down speeding.

He said: “Two cop cars is all it takes to put the fear of God in everybody, especially if you’ve already got a ticket.

“It’s human psychology – if you see a cop car you don’t know if there’s another one, you don’t know if there’s a radar, you don’t know where the guy with the radar is.”

Mr Stallard supports having speed cameras on the road to deter dangerous driving. He said: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, what are you worried about?”

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Published November 03, 2022 at 7:44 am (Updated November 03, 2022 at 7:44 am)

Former St George mayor calls for action at dangerous junction

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