9:11am Friday 19th March 2010
By Mike Laycock
A YOUNG motorist has been left with 16 stitches in his cheek – and with his car written off – after becoming the latest victim of York’s controversial rising bollard.
Jack Small, 18, says he did not realise access was restricted to Stonebow on a Saturday when he drove over the bollard in the road.
The equipment rose up and speared his engine, thrusting the car into the air. Jack said his face first hit the windscreen and then the steering wheel, forcing his teeth to bite through his left cheek.
He said the car was left moving around like a ride simulator before it rolled off the bollard.
He said: “I was taken to hospital by ambulance and given about 16 stitches, half of them inside my cheek and half of them outside. I think I will be left with a permanent scar. There was engine oil everywhere and the car’s a write-off.”
He said he was dropping off a friend when the incident happened on Saturday morning. “The warning light normally flashes I think, but it wasn’t flashing and I thought the restrictions only applied Monday to Friday.
“A car was coming on to the mini-roundabout from the side, but then he waved for me to go on, so I followed another car which was crossing the bollard without any problem.”
He said he was now off work sick and the loss of his car – a V-reg Vauxhall Astra – would make it difficult to return to his job as a joiner at Stamford Bridge. He said police also wanted to speak to him about the incident.
His mother, Sandra Hardgrave, said: “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous this can happen. They could surely have some sort of sensor, so that if a vehicle is passing over it stops rising.”
She said she would like to thank an unknown woman who stopped to help her son after he was hurt.
City of York Council said today it was satisfied with four flashing warning lights and several signs at the approach to the bollard.
A spokeswoman said the lights were functioning normally at the moment, and authority was not aware of any problem with them at the time of the incident. “There is also a large sign on the approach to the mini-roundabout in front of the bollard which warns drivers of its presence,” she said. “It clearly states the bollard’s times of operation: Mon-Sat, 8am to 6pm. There are two signs giving the same information in front of the bollard.”
She said the bollard had worked normally since the incident, but suffered some damage and the council would seek to recover the costs of replacing this from the driver or his insurance.
THE automatic rising bollard in Stonebow provoked controversy from the day it was installed in October 2000 – at a cost of £60,000 – in a bid to stop all traffic except registered buses and taxis driving towards Pavement.
Within days of its launch, a taxi driver escaped with a bump to his head when his car was brought to a standstill by the equipment. Within days, a second car struck it and a flashing warning sign was introduced. After five accidents in a fortnight, the bollard was suspended while highways bosses studied footage of the accidents.
In 2001, the bollard claimed its first bus victim – the number 7 to Acomb. In 2005 a paramedic was taken to hospital with whiplash injuries after his ambulance hit the device as it was speeding to a 999 call.
Last October, an elderly woman was treated by paramedics after colliding with the bollard.
City of York Council says vehicles collide with the bollard about two to three times a year.
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