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Fresh road safety worry after injury
Credit: South Wales Evening Post, www.thisissouthwales.co.uk 22 October 2011 ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
A safety campaigner who has warned of the danger of large vehicles being allowed to use an access road to a wind farm development needed hospital treatment – after a collision with a low loader.
Sean Lacey has been among the protesters concerned over the use of the entrance road to Mynydd y Betws, where permission has been granted for a turbine wind farm by Carmarthenshire Council.
The entrance, on the A474 just before Cwmgors, is directly opposite the home of Mr Lacey, father-in-law of Welsh rugby hero Shane Williams.
Hospital
He and his daughter Gail, Shane’s wife, have joined campaigners waving placards highlighting safety concerns and questioning the legality of the road’s use, when on Thursday he was in collision with one of the vehicles using the road.
Mr Lacey, who was taken to Morriston Hospital for treatment to his knee following the incident, said it illustrates how unsuitable the road is for such use.
He said: “It was a fast track tractor with a low loader, and as it turned in it accidentally caught me. It took my legs away from right under me.
“I had muscle damage in my back, and damage to the ligament in my knee.
“It just goes to show what we have been saying about the unsuitability of this road. It is just lucky it wasn’t fatal. Another few inches and it might have killed”.
Police acknowledged they had been informed of the incident.
Although the wind farm development is in Carmarthenshire, the access road is in the county of Neath Port Talbot.
Neath Port Talbot councillor Linet Purcell said: “It is very worrying that the planning permission given for the access track appears to have no conditions attached to it to control traffic which resulted in chaos on the road last week.
Neath Port Talbot head of planning Geoff White said: “Planning consent has been granted for the access to the wind farm, work is currently taking place to implement the access improvements and the council is satisfied that this accords with the planning consent. However, work has not commenced on the wind farm itself.”
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