A man visiting Llangollen from Minera has contacted llanblogger to claim he was left with a swollen and bruised knee after tripping over the bollards in Castle Street which a local group as campaigned to have removed.
The bollards
were placed along one side of the main street last November by Denbighshire
County Council as part of a package of social distancing measures.
But they have
since become a highly contentious issue, with the Llangollen Advocate group
claiming they were dangerous to pedestrians and lobbying to have them removed while
the area’s two county councillors, Graham Timms and Melvyn Mile, argued they were
a necessary measure to help people keep their distance, especially as tourism
restarts.
Advocate has
reported a series of accidents to pedestrians on its Facebook page over the
past few weeks.
Last week
llanblogger revealed that following an inspection county council officers had
agreed to replace the line of bollards with planters within the next few weeks.
In the
meantime, as the weekend began, white lines were painted around the bollards in
an attempt to make them more visible to pedestrians until they are taken away..
On Friday
evening llanblogger received the following email from 52-year-old Keith Wilson
who said he had been injured after tripping on the bollards earlier in the day.
He said: “I was
out with my wife today in Llangollen and I too was a victim of the trip hazard
on Castle Street with the new bollards at approximately 14.30pm.
“I was crossing
the road to the Nemo Chip Shop from Market Street and tripped over the concrete
raised bollard and went flying head first landing heavily on my knee and my
head hit into a parked bicycle outside the shop.
“The bollards
are hardly visible and an absolute death trap, the police were in attendance as
well as a member of the public who was a nurse an ambulance was called to get
my injuries checked out.
“After an hour
and a half sat on the pavement waiting for an ambulance I decided to cancel the
ambulance and go home to rest.
“My knee is
swollen and bruised and I can hardly walk .I will be attending hospital in the
morning to get checked out.
“I cannot
believe it is going to be another two weeks before these death traps are
removed.
“Whoever had
the idea to build these has no clue. It is only a matter of time before someone
is killed or seriously injured.
“I would like
to thank the police in attendance who were great and the publican Craig
from the Bull Inn who was really helpful and the lovely nurse who was passing
by.
“I will be
reporting the fall on Tuesday to the county council. I hope no one else has to
suffer what I did today.”
In a further
email on Friday he added: “I was very shaken up at the time of the incident and
quite light headed.
“The cyclist
who had the bike sent video of damage to their bike caused by my head
impacting it .
I think it saved me from more serious injury
to be honest as otherwise I would have hit the shop wall .
“The police
were there and other witnesses too. The landlord at the pub says he has it all
on cctv and I will be calling him tomorrow to get copy.
“The bollards
are so dangerous I cannot believe they got approved in the first place, they
are the same colour as road and unless you’re looking at your feet, which you
aren’t when you are crossing road, it is easy to miss them as I did today.
“If I had been
elderly it could have been far worse. I really hope you can get the council to
see sense .
“It’s a good job I wasn’t crossing in the opposite direction and falling headlong into the road.”
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