Speeding motorists ‘affecting quality of life’ claim Oystermouth Road residents

SPEEDING motorists on Swansea’s Oystermouth Road are dicing with death and affecting residents’ quality of life, people living in flats there have claimed.

They said some drivers were racing up and down the dual carriageway at high speed at night, despite it being a built-up area and a 30mph limit.

They called for speed cameras saying the problem has got worse over the last couple of years, and they feared someone would die.

Oystermouth Road resident Tina Curtis said: “It’s absolutely beyond a joke. There is going to be a fatality on this road. I don’t like saying it, but it’s going to happen.

“You want to sit here at night. I open my patio doors – my God. I have to shut them – it’s the noise of the cars revving up, the exhausts backfiring.

“They dice in and out of the lanes. How somebody has not been killed, I just don’t know. You’re just waiting for a bang, and then blue lights.”

The 63-year-old has lived at her flat for four years, and said the din of normal traffic was fine.

“It’s got worse over the last two-and-a-half years,” she said of the speeding. “It’s making a few of us want to move.”

Mrs Curtis said she has reported her concerns to South Wales Police, but claimed the force referred her to Swansea Council. The council, she claimed, then referred back her to police.

South Wales Police said it was not aware of an increase in anti-social behaviour from speeding vehicles on Oystermouth Road.

Mrs Curtis said she spoke to a policeman who was at the scene of an accident outside her flat involving a car and a lamppost around a year ago.

“I said, ‘Can you please do something about this road? Surely someone has got the power to put up speed cameras.’ He said he would look into it, but I didn’t hear anything more.”

Don Astill, who has lived in his Oystermouth Road flat for 17 years, also reckoned speeding had got worse.

“At night it’s like Brands Hatch out there,” he said. “They race from the lights (near the prison) up to the Slip Bridge. You can smell the petrol.

“I recognise the cars now – (Vauxhall) Astras, Subarus and Minis. The music is going boom, boom, boom, and they are flying. They are going two abreast – their exhausts clattering and banging.

“They’ve got no regard for anybody. The noise is so excessive. It can go on until 1am.

“I have phoned the police, and asked them to send an unmarked car.”

Another resident, Philip Curtis, claimed that speeds of up to 80mph or even 90mph were sometimes being reached.

“It’s blinking terrible,” said the 85-year-old. “It’s a built-up area, for goodness sakes. We’ve given up complaining.

“How there hasn’t been anyone killed on this road, I don’t know.”

In August 2019 a motorcyclist was killed further along the dual carriageway in the direction of Mumbles, where the speed limit is 40mph. Paul Jones, 50, was unable to swerve out of the way of a Ford Galaxy whose driver performed an unexpected U-turn near the St Helen’s Recreation Ground.

The driver, Arron William Parker, of Yate, Gloucestershire, pleaded guilty in court to causing death by careless driving, and to causing death while driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

The court also heard that Mr Jones, a father-of-two from Port Tennant, was travelling at an estimated 61mph at the time of the collision.

Responding to the claims by Oystermouth Road residents, police in Swansea said they were not aware of an increase in anti-social behaviour from speeding vehicles on Oystermouth Road.

A force spokeswoman said officers had investigated reports of off-road motorbikes on Oystermouth Road and in the city centre, and that periodic patrols in both areas have taken place.

“If there are concerns in the community it doesn’t appear they are being reported to us, so we would encourage anyone who has concerns connected to anti-social behaviour to report them to us,” she said.

– To report anti-social concerns to police, phone 101 or visit the online portal www.south-wales.police.uk/ro/report/