A Perth shop owner has claimed an accident at a busy junction in the city has “been waiting to happen”.
Elena Costella, who runs the Elena Costella Yarn & Fibre Studio in Main Street, Bridgend, contacted The Courier following a collision between two cars on Saturday at 10am at the junction of Main Street and East Bridge Street, in which motorists escaped serious injury.
Elena has described some of the recent driving at the junction as “quite horrendous”.
She said: “There are a lot of motorists who come flying down the hill at East Bridge Street and go through red lights.
“Many drivers see the lights changing but just come across the road. There’s been an accident waiting to happen and now we’ve had this. Luckily, no one was seriously injured.
”There is a safety camera at the junction but I feel we need traffic calming measures there.”
Elena said she spoke to two of the occupants of one the cars involved in the collision to see if they were OK and revealed she has contacted John Swinney, MSP for North Tayside, about her concerns regarding the junction.
Mr Swinney said he has discussed the “long-term” traffic situation in Bridgend with a number of “concerned” constituents from both commercial and residential perspectives.
“What is clear is the volume of traffic is of increasing concern locally and this is true not only in terms of road safety but also in the context of poor air quality,” he said.
“Only by having increased dialogue across all groups will we achieve the creative solutions required to improve this situation for the Bridgend community and the wider area.”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council confirmed there is a CCTV camera at the junction concerned to monitor traffic behaviour.
“It’s not been put there specifically to check for red light jumpers,” he said.
“There are no such plans for introducing traffic calming measures.”