7:40pm Monday 30th November 2009
A MOTORING association has criticised the Government for refusing to pay for lighting on a stretch of motorway on which five people have died.
Bolton Advanced Motorists said the money needed to light up the carriageways was “paltry” compared to the cash handed out to banks.
Writing in the December issue of the organisation’s magazine, chairman Roy Sammons said that the Government has given a further £30 billion “bail out” to the UK banking industry and a handout of £58 million to the Highways Agency to strengthen the hard shoulder on the M6 in preparation for using the hard shoulder as a “peak period running lane”. He added: “Yet your Government has refused to give money to provide lighting on the M61.
“Yet another death occurred in the darkness as a pedestrian tried to cross the motorway on Sunday, November 1.
“I wonder if all of the deaths of pedestrians on the M61 in the last couple of years lie heavily on the conscience of the Government/Highways Agency decision makers?
“The amounts needed for lighting are paltry compared to the handouts above.”
Ian Wilkinson, aged 39, of Hindley was struck by a lorry at 6.30am on Sunday, November 1 on the southbound carriageway of the M61, between Chorley and Horwich.
He was the third pedestrian to be killed on the M61 this year.
Joanne Higham, aged 32, was killed near Bolton West Services on Sunday, May 31, after she got out of a car following an argument with her boyfriend.
Olivia Nickson, aged 82, who had never driven on motorways, stopped next to the central reservation on January 29 to ask for directions from the owners of a broken-down vehicle on the hard shoulder when she got lost and walked into the path of car.
Earlier this year a campaign was launched by the Highways Agency, warning people not to walk on the motorway following the death of Jordan Allen, aged 23, who was walking home after a night out when he was hit by a car near Little Hulton in February last year.
In 2007, The Bolton News launched a campaign to light up the M61, after Sean Green, aged 17, of Whitsundale, Westhoughton, was knocked down when trying to cross the motorway between Westhoughton and Horwich.
The Highways Agency has previously said it had no plans to introduce lighting despite admitting it is “definitely one of the worst” stretches of motorway for pedestrians taking short cuts.
No one from the agency was last night available to comment.
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