Glasgow man 'raised concerns about Southside road three times before death of mechanic'

Adam Frew first got in touch with Glasgow City Council in April 2020, after a driver on Kilmarnock Road mounted a kerb and travelled along the pavement, knocking over a metal post.

The 34-year-old says “it was a matter of time” before a fatality would occur as he has noticed several accidents (some of which are pictured throughout this article) outside his flat since he started working from home.

On March 4 this year, George Jarvis was tragically killed whilst walking on Kilmarnock Road, near the junction with Holmbank Avenue, just yards from where Adam lives.

The 69-year-old, who owned a popular garage in Pollokshaws, was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital but sadly died three days later.

Hundreds of people shared their devastation following the news of George’s death, but the council say the accident was not a result of any “road-related issues”.

After raising concerns in 2020, Adam was told a safety assessment of the road would be carried out within six months and he would be written to with the findings.

He never heard back and raised concerns a further two more times, and once more following the recent fatality.

Adam said: “When the car mounted the kerb that prompted me to get in touch with the council. At the time, I was saying it was amazing no one had been killed yet.

“What’s going to motivate me now is that someone has died. It was just a matter of time.

“I felt anger when I found out the man had died. I was angry more than anything.

“You’re going out of your way to raise serious issues with people who are responsible, and it just feels like you’re getting fobbed off.”

Adam says he believes the problems on the road include speeding and parking.

He added: “There are cars pulling out when others are coming. I drive around here myself, there are blind junctions because people park right up to them.

“There’s also the issue of speed, mostly in the evenings. A lot of cars bomb it down the road really fast. On occasion, I’ll hear something before I see it. There’s quite a variety of accidents. I hear the impact and I go to the window and right enough something’s happened.

“Most nights there are cars speeding. I’ve only been working from the front of the flat over the last year and the thing that amazes me is that there’s so much going on.

“The council need to monitor what the traffic is doing before they come up with solutions. A life has been taken now. There’s more than one problem going on and they’re not making any attempts to figure out what they are.

“Maybe something could have been put in place and the man might not have been killed, I don’t know. The council won’t know much until they measure the traffic.”

Glasgow City Council says a traffic safety survey is now under way.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: “We take road safety in Glasgow extremely seriously and we are fully committed to investigating the concerns raised by Mr Frew.

“The Covid pandemic has unfortunately disrupted our work and we have been dealing with a high volume of requests for support on road safety matters.

“We are sorry for the delay in undertaking the assessment at this location, but work is now under way, and this will help to determine if any measures are required to improve road safety at this location.

“As promised, we will write back to Mr Frew with our findings once this exercise has been completed.

“The death of a pedestrian in March this year was investigated by police, and we were subsequently informed by police that no road-related issues were identified as a contributing factor to this tragic incident.”

Police Scotland said no one has been arrested or reported in relation to George Jarvis’ death and their investigation continues.