MARKET Hill has been host to numerous incidents and crashes over the years.

Each time it happens, our police forces, community teams and members of the public react brilliantly to assist those involved.

However, isn’t it time we also focussed efforts on helping to prevent these incidents happening altogether?

We saw in June the tragic incident in which cyclist Brian Howard lost control of his bike going down the hill, ending in his tragic death.

At the time, we talked about measures to help prevent those accidents, but nothing happened.

Now this week, with snow and ice on the ground, it wasn’t until a car smashed into a building after skidding on the ice that police chose to close the road.

The hill can be hazardous at the best of times, but with added snow and ice, the decision would have been clear to close it before an accident occurred.

We need to home in on preventative, not just reactive, safety measures.