Crash driver in safety call

May 27 2009 by Lynda Nicol, East Kilbride News

Crash driver in safety call

A STRATHAVEN woman has called for safety improvements at an accident blackspot where she wrote off her car.

Grace Traynor, 23, from Dunlop Place, who is pregnant, escaped injury after her car went out of control after driving over a diesel spillage on the A726 East Kilbride to Strathaven Road, near Chapelton earlier this month.

Miss Traynor, a hairdresser, was travelling home from her work at Sorbie Hayes Salon, East Kilbride, when the accident happened.

She said she was travelling at around 30 mph as she approached the bend in second gear, when her ‘F’ registration Renault Scenic Megane spun out of control.

Grace said: “I am a responsible driver and I was not speeding, was wearing my seatbelt and came down gear as I approached the bend where I knew two other accidents took place on the same week.

“There had been a fuel spillage on the road but no-one from the roads department had covered it over at that point, so as I turned into the bend the car skidded off-road, through a fence, flipped and landed upside-down on the grass verge.

“As the car overturned, I was really scared and then I felt the wheel hit my stomach.

“The car then landed and I was sitting, still belted, but in an upside-down position.”

After the accident, as Grace waited for the police and ambulance services, a couple stopped and helped her and two off-duty police officers also came to her assistance.

She said: “I want to thank all of them for helping me.

“My partner Craig, 27, came straight to Hairmyres Hospital to see me.

“He had also skidded off that same stretch of road some years ago.”

Grace continued: “I was also a bit in shock when I realised my 15-month-old son Zain would normally have been in the car. I'm convinced, even although he would have been securely strapped in his car seat, that his neck would have been injured or broken by the amount of tossing and turning the car went through before coming to a stand-still.

“I’m just so thankful that he was with his grandparents on that Saturday afternoon.”

Grace was taken by ambulance to Hairmyres Hospital but later released.

She said: “The council should be doing something about this stretch of the road.

“I really fear that somebody will be killed before anyone does anything about it.”

A South Lanarkshire Council spokesman, said: “We have spent £559,000 over the past two years to improve road safety on the A726 between Strathaven and East Kilbride.

“However, we will continue to investigate the number and nature of road traffic accidents along the route and bring forward road safety improvements as necessary.”