Conor Loughrey (DRD Western Division Manager), DRD Minister Michelle McIlveen and David Mahon
THERE are calls to improve a dangerous road junction in Kesh after an elderly pedestrian was seriously injured just over a month ago in a collision with a 4×4.
One of the oldest men in the village, 93-year-old Harry Woods was knocked down on February 18 at around 7.10pm as he was crossing the Crevenish Road. He suffered a broken pelvis, hairline fracture in two of the vertebrae in his neck and injuries to his face and nose and was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for treatment.
Earlier this month the DRD Minister Michelle McIlveen and DRD Western Division manager Conor Loughrey visited Kesh to discuss the concerns raised by local residents.
As local DUP councillor David Mahon explained these were in relation to the need to resurface large areas of the Crevenish and Mantlin Roads and explore the possibility of putting in a pedestrian crossing in the area where Mr Woods was knocked down.
“My initial reason for arranging the meeting was due to the surface of the Crevenish Road,” Mr Mahon explained. “I had the meeting arranged before Harry was knocked down. That road is quite bad, there’s quite a lot of humps and hollows all the way up. It should slow people down, but it obviously doesn’t.”
There have previously been calls for speed bumps to be introduced on the troublesome stretch, but the calls fell on deaf ears. Mr Mahon hopes that in light on recent events DRD will act.
“People have tried before to get a pedestrian crossing, but unsuccessfully. We’ve asked the question, but we’ve been told the statistics don’t add up, there’s not enough people crossing the road to get a crossing, on the main street or on the Crevenish Road. Unfortunately sometimes it takes incidents to make things happen and we will press for work to take place.”
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