A family have had a total of eight cars written off since they moved to a new house. The Griffiths', who moved to Chepstow Road in Newport, Wales, lost an eighth car due to a crash on Tuesday evening.
Bizarrely, the stretch of the main road outside their house has seen a total of 20 cars being deemed beyond repair with locals said to be furious at the amount of crashes happening close to the M4 Coldra junction, reports Wales Online.
The reasons behind each crash are unknown but father, Andrew Griffiths, is joining concerned residents in demanding speed mitigation methods such as speed bumps be put in place. His daughter's Ford Fiesta was wrecked just weeks after he lost his car from a collision in the early hours of the morning.
His car was parked outside his home when it was totalled, with local elected officials meeting with residents in March to discuss the issue after another collision saw two cars written off the road.
Andrew said: “They are waiting for someone to die before they do anything about it.
“After the meeting in March they said they couldn’t put any rumble strips or anything like that in and they were looking at more speed awareness programmes instead. One of the councillors came again last night but I didn’t speak to her.
"Why is it still happening? Why does it keep happening to us and our neighbours? Yesterday another car was written off and another damaged. There are a whole manner of reasons why they seem to happen. We’ve had people fall asleep at the wheel, people not concentrating, all sorts.
“As soon as something more serious happens, something will get done. It’s unbelievable. This time it’s my daughter’s car - a Fiesta. She started working and saved money to buy it. It was her first car. She’s had it about a year and she’s still learning to drive in it. It was immaculate, she really looked after it.”
Speaking on the latest incident, he said: “I heard a bang but it wasn’t as loud as the others have been so I immediately opened the door and looked down the road. But then I saw it was us again, right out the front.
"My wife gets really stressed over it. I just feel angry. We’ve got new neighbours who have moved in in the last month just after the last crash and this car has gone into them as well.”
His neighbour, James Crowley, has had a total of ten cars written off since moving to the street, while elderly neighbour Gerald Carter is said to have lost two motors in the last six years - with one crash being so severe the vehicle nearly ended up in his living room.
Mr Crowley said after his was written off: “It appears they drive from the Coldra, which is approximately a mile away. If there’s nothing at the Coldra then usually the first cars you’ll see parked on the side of the road are ours. More and more so I am worrying about someone being hit rather than a car.
“We get no compensation whatsoever. My insurance has gone up and I’ve lost a lot of money. On average every time we get a new car we then lose around £3,000 every time there is an accident.”
A spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: “We had a report of a road traffic collision on Chepstow Road in Newport at about 6.35pm yesterday evening. It involved a van and two cars. The two cars were parked on the roadside at the time. No-one was injured. The van driver did initially stop at the scene, the van was left at the scene, and officers are now making enquiries to trace the driver.”
In 2020 Inspector Martin Cawley, for Gwent Police, said the force “is continuing to monitor the situation and will take steps to resolve any issues”.
In March a spokesman for Newport Council said: "The council has received a report of problems along a particular stretch of Chepstow Road. As it is a strategic through road, we are not considering any additional traffic calming measures at this time, but we have offered to facilitate a community speed watch scheme for residents.
"It should also be noted that Chepstow Road will be defaulted to 20mph under the new default national speed limit which is coming into force in Wales from 17 September 2023. Further information on which streets in Newport will be defaulted to 20mph can be found on our website."
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