SPEEDERS TURN DIAMOND ROAD INTO DANGER ZONE
SPEEDERS are turning Dromore's Diamond Road into a kill-zone for cats, and it could just as easily be kids.
That's according to a group of local residents campaigning for measures to put the brakes on the drivers and bikers they say are using the road like a racetrack.
Among the campaigners are two neighbours who between them have had five cats mown down in recent months.
The same frustrated residents say otherwise welcome resurfacing and work to improve sightlines at two junctions actually served to encourage some road-users to pour on even more speed.
The section of road in question is described locally as stretching from 'Wilson's corner' to 'Bickerstaff's'.
On the residents' wish-list are a new, lower speed limit, new signs and perhaps additional traffic-calming measures.
Earlier attempts to convince the authorities to take action have failed, but the determined locals have now taken their case to Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson.
"This has been going on for quite a while now," said one man, "but it's getting so you can hardly get across the road, and we can't even keep animals because they keep getting run over.
"My neighbour has lost two cats and I have had three cats run over and killed this year. That's bad enough - it's upsetting when a pet is killed - but the thing is, it could just as easily have been children."
A lifelong resident of the area, the man said that as children he and his friends could have safely played football in the middle of the road, but things now stood at the opposite extreme, with parents frightened to even allow older children out on their bikes.
The same man said sightline work intended to improve safety at local junctions had effectively given on one hand and taken on the other.
"Even coming out of the Drumaghadone Road onto the Diamond Road you take your life in your hands," he said. "They've cut the corners to give people a better view down the road but it means too that the speeders don't have a reason to slow down now.
"Even with the better sightlines, if somebody's coming flying down the road they're on you before you see them coming."
The local resident said things were often particularly bad in good weather, when many bikers tended to use the road as a main route through to Newcastle. As well as traffic calming measures, residents believe an increased police presence in the area might have a deterrent effect.
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Weather for Dromore
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 0 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South west
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Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
