Eastbourne mother’s concerns over ‘dangerous’ town centre road after near miss

Anna Goacher, who lives on the road, says vehicles go too fast down the road and something needs to be done before tragedy strikes.

She said, “I nearly got run over while seven months pregnant. A car stopped for me to cross and another driver overtook without realising we were crossing. It almost hit me and my son. I was so scared I screamed. I was so shaken.”

The mother, who works at Eastbourne DGH, is concerned about schoolchildren using the road and believes there should be signs calling for people to drive carefully.

She said, “All the cars come really fast. There’s no safe place for pedestrians to cross. I have seen children crossing the road on their way to school. There’s no way for them to cross safely.

“When the shopping centre [The Beacon] is finished it’s going to be really busy. I worry a child could get run over. There should be some sort of signs saying children are crossing the road.”

She added, “It’s really dangerous. Highways says there has to be three accidents before they do anything. I thought, you can’t just wait for something bad to happen.”

Two incidents happened in the road in the past six months. On December 14, a truck collided with a bus shelter in the early hours. The black Mitsubishi Warrior was discovered by emergency services embedded in the shelter.

On October 24, an air ambulance was called after a car and cyclist collided in the road at about 5pm. Sussex Police said the cyclist suffered a minor head injury.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said, “We are aware of Ms Goacher’s concerns and have spoken to her about this issue and carried out an assessment for road safety measures at this location. Cavendish Avenue has a very good safety record, with no recorded personal injury crashes in the last three years and no recorded crashes which have been attributed to speeding.

“We only have very limited funding available for road safety measures and have to focus this where the need is greatest, and unfortunately Cavendish Avenue doesn’t meet the criteria at present.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t reassess the situation in the future, and in the meantime residents can report speeding, anti-social or dangerous driving through Operation Crackdown, or may be interested in signing up for the Community Speedwatch scheme.”