A Hanwell resident who had her parked courtesy car smashed head on by an out of control driver on Greenford Avenue is calling on Labour-run Ealing Council to do something to tackle high speed driving before someone gets killed.
Amanda, who has lived in Hanwell for many years was woken up in the early hours of Saturday morning (27 May 2023) after a grey Subaru hit her car.
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, Amanda said: “We literally heard this almighty bang. My husband jumped out of bed, opened our window, looked out, and then saw what he saw. I couldn’t actually believe it because my this is actually a courtesy car.”
Amanda added: “This is a courtesy car. My own car is actually in the body shop because the wing mirror was ripped off from being parked on this road.”
The shocked Hanwell resident explained more about what happened after the high speed crash on the 20 miles per hour road. “My husband saw three men getting out of the vehicle. I took a photograph immediately, but didn’t catch anything. One of our neighbours had CCTV footage from his Ring doorbell and I called the police immediately and another of our neighbours had already called the police.”
“They all ran off. But one person in the front seat of the Subaru that smashed into my car, his head hit the windscreen. You can actually see an imprint of his head on the screen and this person also ran away. There was nobody there when I came down. My husband took off to see if he could catch up with one of them but he didn’t catch up.”
Amanda said that the impact of the Subaru hit her car so strong that the out of control driver went from pointing his car from down the hill to up the hill.
“The Subaru was in the middle of the road afterwards and the police took it away.”
With blood and hair fibres from one one of the people on the windscreen from the out of control Suburu, police will have an opportunity to match the DNA.
As well as causing massive damage to her courtesy car, Amanda said a tree was knocked down and a lamp post also had to be fixed.
“The impact saw it take out a tree and it ploughed into a lamp post and titled it. So the energy company actually had to come out and cut the top off the lamp post because it wasn’t safe.”
Other residents were horrified by what happened and have placed a message to the council about enforcing the speed limit saying: “Ealing Council does someone have to die before you address the issue with speed on this road???”
Amanda said incidents on the road have happened before and wants the council to take action.
“I just hope that something can happen on this road, where people who do live here and park their cars on the road can actually have peace of mind. We have lived on this road for many years and this isn’t the first time this has happened in recent weeks.
“This is the third time this has happened in recent weeks. And if you look back over the statistics of the last 20 years, there’s multiple incidents on this road. And I don’t know why. On the other side of the road they are allowed to park on the pavement but not on this side. I know they’ve put a 20 mile an hour speed limit along here but it’s not making any difference. So something has to give, whether it’s TfL, whether it’s the police, whether it’s the council, they need to get together and do something to make this safe because if I had been leaving for work at that time in the morning, which has been known, I would be dead.”
EALING.NEWS was told by several other locals that only a few days earlier, the police were out in force for a few hours in nearby Borders Road and the junction with Greenford Road using handheld cameras on passing vehicles.
Amanda said that isn’t a permanent solution. She said: “They can’t be here all the time. They can only do what is within their power to do. And they can’t sit on this road 24 hours a day seven days a week, 365 days a year. It doesn’t warrant that it warrants alternative intervention.”
Amanda has a message for the council. “Please just take a look at the stats and see that something needs to happen. Because if somebody had been out running at that time in the morning or on a bike they could be a statistic. Or even just walking, I walk my dog at that time in the morning, it’s dangerous. And if my car hadn’t been there, that Subaru would have hit straight into my neighbour’s two cars and caused even more damage and destruction.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, Ealing Green Party chair Neil Reynolds said: “20 mph speed limits were the right step. Ealing Council needs to change its defeatist attitude road safety however. By making changes to road layouts, it can make hotspots safer and force a reckless minority to change their behaviour.”
Leader of the official opposition on Ealing Council, Ealing Liberal Democrats Councillor Gary Malcolm told EALING.NEWS: “Although enforcement is usually the responsibility of the police, Ealing Council should take regard to roads or junctions where lots of incidents or near miss incidents occur so that they and other such as TfL can alter the roads to reduce the chance of speeding or accidents.”
Viewing the scene of the crash, local resident Paul told EALING.NEWS the council needs to do something. “What is the point of having speed limits here if the council is not enforcing it?”
Paul added: “The council and its leadership needs to look clearly at what it is doing, or in the case of speed limits, look at why it is not doing enough to enforce speed limits. It is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or dies because of a speeding driver and the council will be accountable for that.”
Following the crash, residents in the borough, challenged the council on Twitter on enforcing the speed limit.
A message for @EalingCouncil on Greenford Avenue. No chance this happened at 20mph but, as there’s almost zero enforcement, it’s not a surprise. pic.twitter.com/bP38NWDItq
— David Buck 💚 (@davidxbuck) May 27, 2023
@davidxbuck tweeted: “A message for @EalingCouncil on Greenford Avenue. No chance this happened at 20mph but, as there’s almost zero enforcement, it’s not a surprise.”
In a reply, Councillor Polly Knewstub said: “Hi David, Local Councils are not responsible for speeding enforcement – it is a matter for the Police. Ealing Council DID however introduce the Borough wide 20 mile an hour speed limit. 20mph limits are proven to reduce death or serious injury by 20% and collisions by 25%.”
@davidxbuck replied: “I fully support the limit but if councils introduce lower limits, it must surely come with a plan with the police for enforcement? I get overtaken regularly by cars and motorbikes who seem to think that, at 20mph, I’m a hindrance, not the norm.”Not good enough.
@ThatGinaLeone added: “It’s Ealing Council’s job to ENGINEER 20mph streets, not shove up a couple of signs & pretend it’s someone else’s problem.”
Following Councillor’s Knewstub comment, an Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “As pointed out by Councillor Knewstub, it is for police to enforce speed restrictions. Where the council has any responsibility for enforcement – such as parking or idling – we do take a tough but fair approach.”
