Hundreds of people have signed a petition to increase safety on a Bolton road after a woman in her 60s died following a horror crash over the weekend.

A man in his 30s is under arrest in hospital on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving – with the investigation into the crash on St Helens Road at 7pm on Saturday, June 22, ongoing.

Local residents said it sounded like ‘an explosion’ after two cars collided and smashed through a wall.

 

(Image: Phil Taylor)

Although the cause of this crash is under investigation, there have been several collisions on the road.

This latest incident has prompted renewed calls for action to make the road safer.

Local resident Suzanne Westwell is leading a call for change to the road – starting a petition to ‘Make Morris Green safe again’.

She said: “You can’t even cross the road – motorists go through on red.

“You’re not safe as a driver, as a pedestrian.

“I’ve got four sons – one who’s learning to drive, one who drives; my husband drives. It’s like wacky races: all times of day, all times of night.

“I work evenings at a local shop, you can hear them constantly racing up and down.”

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The 53-year-old has lived in Morris Green for 14 years, but has lived in the wider area her whole life. Now, she runs the Friends of Morris Green group on Facebook.

Suzanne believes resurfacing the road has made the problem worse – with drivers now racing off faster.

She added: “We have meetings with councillors and tried to do something, but all we were told was to get those hairdryer-type things and monitor speeds ourselves. We were told there’s no help available.

“We’ve been getting fobbed off left, right, and centre,"

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Suzanne said the group is still doing research into what it will ask for to make the roads safer, but speed cameras, including smart cameras and average speed cameras, could be a first step.

Suzanne added: “We have a lot of issues where people don’t have insurance and they’re driving someone else’s car, or they’re driving supercars that can go up to 200mph that aren’t capped.

“They think they’re above the law and it’s getting worse and worse.

“There will be another death if it isn’t done.”

From July, cars sold in the EU and UK will be fitted with speed limiters – though the system can be overridden by pressing hard on the throttle.

In Greater Manchester, the city leaders have set out plans to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads to zero, referred to as ‘Vision Zero’.

The strategy has been taken up by several cities worldwide.

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “Road safety is a key priority for the council. We work closely with GMP to address this issue and we are also working in collaboration with partners across GM to develop a ‘Vision Zero’ strategy.

“This aims to eliminate all deaths and life-changing injuries on the region’s roads by 2040.

“Speeding is a driver behaviour issue and, unfortunately, it has been shown that traffic calming measures will not stop people who are determined to drive irresponsibly.

“Traffic calming measures are designed to prevent accidents – not to stop speeding or dangerous driving, which are matters for the police.”

A Transport for Greater Manchester spokesperson said: “As the investigation is still live, we are unfortunately unable to offer a comment at this time.”

Greater Manchester Police has been contacted for comment.

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Bolton. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.