Response to calls for improved safety near Millennium park branded "embarrassing"

Friday 08 July 2016

A friend of Clinton Pringle’s family has strongly criticised the Parish of St Helier for its response to calls for safety improvements around the town park where the toddler was killed.

In a press release, the Parish said new safety measures will be put in place around the Millennium Park and access to Tunnel Street in particular will be reviewed. But family friend Nicola McAteer -- who launched an online petition calling for action to improve safety “before another tragedy happens” -- said the Parish’s statement is unsatisfactory and long overdue.

Details were scant in the press release which said officials had met with Police on Tuesday and, “...it has been agreed that additional safety measures will be put in place as soon as possible.”

“The Parish will investigate as a matter of urgency what can be done to strengthen compliance with the existing traffic restrictions which were put in place at the time of the creation of the park, in particular, the ‘Access to premises only’ designation of Tunnel Street,” the statement continued.

“The Parish will consult the States of Jersey Police and the Department of Infrastructure before implementing any such measures, as well as any residents and businesses in Tunnel Street which may be affected by them.”

Ms McAteer’s petition has gathered over 2,800 signatures and was supported by Clinton’s grief-stricken parents. You can see it here.

But until yesterday, ten days after the fatal accident, local officials have been largely silent on the possibility of improving safety by the park. Ms McAteer has also personally written to St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft and Chief Minister Ian Gorst about the matter. 

“I don’t think that is anywhere near good enough,” she in response to the Parish’s press release. “That does not make people feel any safer. Why has it taken so long to get this response?”

And she told Express that she crossed the park yesterday right after two new “Access Only” and “No Entry” signs were erected, only to see a van speed right past them and the site of the tragedy.

Ms McAteer, herself a mother-of-two, was so upset she pursued and confronted the van’s driver and called his employer.

She said that if local officials cannot figure out how to make the area safer, they should be calling in outside help.

Three-year-old Clinton had been visiting the Island with his mother when the tragic accident occurred on June 27. He was airlifted to a Southampton Hospital where he battled for his life for three days before succumbing to his devastating injuries.

Since that time his parents made a return visit to Jersey and the site where their child’s life was ripped away.

His father branded the road layout near the park “terrible”.

“The design of the road is terrible,” he told the Scottish Daily Record. “I had to see it for myself to make sense of it. You really wouldn’t know if it’s a road or a pavement.”

And commenting on the online petition, Clinton’s mother Stacey wrote that when they returned to the scene of the accident, “people were still driving round Tunnel Street at great speed and even on the part that is meant to be the so called pavement area.”

“I am signing this because I don't want any parent to go through what myself and my husband are going through,” she added. 

You can view Ms McAteer's online petition here.