“Take action NOW or children will die” - warns angry resident after 'near miss' crash in Chesterfield

Children are at risk of being run over unless major action is taken, said Ian Neal, who had a near-miss at Alma Park last month and is now he’s calling for better signage.

He added: “I was early to the gym so I got myself a coffee and as I went to cross the road this car shot past me and made contact with my elbow. If I had fancied a little jog across the road I would be dead - or at the very least in a nasty state.”

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Mr Neal said he felt it was ‘only a matter of time’ before someone died and said he, and fellow gym-goers, had witnessed ‘near misses’ on a regular basis.

He explained: “I go to the gym four times a week and I see these sorts of incidents every day. A few days later some elderly lady actually dropped three of her drinks coming out of Costa (Coffee) because a van shot past her. A receptionist at the gym said they would confidently put the number of cars going in the wrong direction at at least 50 a day.”

“It’s only a matter of time before a child dies and we all know action would be taken then. Action needs to be taken now - why should we wait until someone is dead or maimed”, he added.

When asked what he would like seen done to counter the issue, Mr Neal said: “I would put two big signs at the start of the one-way system - I reckon that would immediately decrease the number of incidents by 95% - and the more radical suggestion is to actually install a curb so that it causes damage to the cars that insist on ignoring the one-way route.”

Chesterfield Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council both said they had no control over signage due to the site being privately owned. FPR HX, the company that manages the site car parks, didn’t respond to phone calls from the Derbyshire Times.