Why this Calderdale roundabout is driving residents around the bend

A worse accident is waiting to happen - that is the message after yet another crash at the mini roundabout on Cooper Lane in Shelf.
Phil Virco at the mini-roundaboutPhil Virco at the mini-roundabout
Phil Virco at the mini-roundabout

A two-vehicle crash on August 26 Sunday involving a car and a minibus, was the latest in a series of accidents near the site, has prompted repeated calls for action from those who live and work nearby.

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Antony Rogivska died in a crash in December 2016 after the red Seat Ibiza he was driving crashed into a house at the junction of Cooper Lane and Carr House Road.

Phil Virco at the mini-roundaboutPhil Virco at the mini-roundabout
Phil Virco at the mini-roundabout

A two-car crash happened at the roundabout in June last year, and a month later a car crashed through a wall there. An elderly man had to be cut from his car after crashing with a tractor in December 2017, before another crash at the roundabout the next day.

Phil Virco, 43, who lives on Cooper Lane, has administered basic first aid to people involved in crashes at the roundabout.

He said: “It’s part and parcel of living here. I don’t know what can be done.

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“I think it’s either speeding or drivers not knowing the road. As you’re coming down Cooper Lane over the brow, you can’t really see the roundabout, you can’t see the traffic coming from the side, and people come down at silly speeds.

“The council and the highways people say there’s nothing they can do, there’s no money, there has to be a fatality first. Nothing gets done. There will be a fatality sooner rather than later.”

Mo Schofield, 56, owns the Space4craft shop near the roundabout. She said: “I’m quite disgusted because I feel there is a worse accident waiting to happen. It worries me that kids go on and off the buses at the three stops nearby, crossing the roads at peak times.

“We started a petition, and we gathered hundreds of signatures, saying we wanted something done. But we never heard anything back from it.”

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