It’s our duty to make our streets safer - Kevin Lang
The loss of any life due to a road traffic accident is tragic. But to be told of the loss of an 11-year-old child is particularly painful. Thomas Wong had his whole life before him, but that life was cut short in the cruellest of fashions on March 1 after a collision with a commercial bin lorry on Whitehouse Road in Barnton.
This community which I have the privilege to represent is heartbroken and I cannot begin to imagine the grief which Thomas’s parents, sister and wider family are facing. Go to Whitehouse Road and you’ll be greeted by a sea of colour from all the flowers, balloons and cards laid in Thomas’s memory. The messages from his classmates are as heartwarming as they are heartbreaking. It is clear he was loved by his family, his friends and his school community.
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Hide AdLast week, I presented a cross-party motion to City of Edinburgh Council’s transport committee to ensure we act just as soon as the police report is received and conclusions are known. I know road safety officers are already looking at what can and should be done in the short term to try and make the area safer.
But there’s a wider point. Truth be told, some of the impetus around “safer routes to schools” has been lost over recent years. We ask a lot of parent councils, but the council doesn’t always give the resource needed to turn those school’s travel plans into action.
Take Davidson’s Mains just along the road where someone died at the village roundabout back in 2017. Only now, seven years on, are the legal orders being published to get the safety improvements promised.
We need to face reality – we are not doing enough on road safety. Now, with more money promised and a growing road safety team at the council, this must change. It’s our responsibility, our duty, to act to make our streets safer.
Councillor Kevin Lang is leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on City of Edinburgh Council