St Helens Road: Heated meeting takes place after fatal crash

The meeting was organised following the death of grandmother Karen Kimblin, who died after a crash on St Helens Road on June 22.

A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving following the tragedy.

Since the incident, residents have started a petition calling for roads in the area to be made safer.

Hundreds have signed the petition on the Change.org website.

The Friends of Morris Green group held the meeting at the Bolton South Salvation Army on Wednesday, July 10 with local councillors and police officers as well as a large number of residents present to discuss what measures can be put in place to make St Helens Road safer for motorists and pedestrians.

Residents at the meeting on Wednesday night (Image: Newsquest)

However, the meeting turned heated as some shared strong opinions which caused some disagreements, including over how quickly changes will be implemented and the thoughts of some who believe it has taken an incident where someone has died for a meeting to be called.

Member of the group, Suzanne Westwell, said that they want to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again.

Karen Kimblin was killed on St Helens Road (Image: GMP)

Hulton councillors Fazeelah Khan and Aalaina Khan were present and spoke about how the community and council need to work together.

Addressing residents, Cllr Fazeelah Khan said: “We are here to see what we can do together, and we need to work together.

“We understand that you’re upset, and we’re upset too, and it’s not easy for the police but we have to find a solution.”

Cllr Aalaina Khan said: “I just want to express my deepest condolences to begin with because it’s sometimes easy for us to forget that someone’s life has been lost and that’s going to impact the community deeply.

“We live in this ward and know what’s going to help but you may have an idea that is fantastic, and we want to be able to accumulate all of this and use it to ensure that tragedies like this aren’t an occurrence and not something that we worry about on a regular basis.

“We will endeavour to make the change that we need to see here, and this is going to be everyone working together.”

One issue that was raised was that there are a lot of high-performance cars in the area.

Questions were asked as to why cars that can be driven up to 200mph are allowed on the roads, and residents said they can hear them racing up and down St Helens Road every night.

They also asked why there is not a police presence around at this time.

In response, PC Dave Kelly said: “In relation to the policing, we work a various shift pattern until midnight.

“We’re local community officers but we have responders who are on 24/7. There is a policing presence 24/7.

“In addition to this we have operations such as Op Classified which are all related to traffic and road-related offences.

"There are cameras on St Helens Road which will capture cars not only speeding but who have no insurance and other offences.

“You may not see things happening, but I just want to reassure you things do happen.

“People are being arrested, cars are being taken off the road, PCSOs are constantly finding cars and getting them removed.”

The meeting on Wednesday night (Image: Newsquest)

Another solution was to try and increase education in driving behaviour in schools, mosques and churches in the area and how this can be implemented on a wider scale.

Police and councillors said they are looking into rolling out a scheme.

Councillors will also be having a meeting with police on Monday, July 22 and will be looking at what happened relating to the crash and looking at things that can be done regarding speed cameras, speed humps and yellow lines.