On one Sunday in January 1967, two children were run down in different motor vehicle accidents.
3 year old Mary Chatham was knocked down by a motor cycle near her home at Kirkton Avenue in High Blantyre. She was taken to hospital at Hairmyres but was later released.
Also that afternoon, Charles Averell (13) of 57 Farm Road was knocked down on Glasgow Road near the junction of Stonefield Road. After treatment by a doctor, he was let home.
The accidents were just 2 in a whole spate of accidents throughout the 1960’s. Residents had concerns about the safety of some junctions, most notably the one at Glasgow Road and Coatshill Avenue. Traffic turning there was a real problem and accidents were frequent, prompting a later traffic island to be built on the central verge of Glasgow Road, stretching almost down to the Westend.
From the book, “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2018
Pictured much earlier in 1935 is an overturned bus at the junction of Glasgow Road and the track that later became Coatshill Avenue.
1935 Bus Crash Glasgow Road