FOUR wheel drive owner Dawn Gardner (pictured) was this week counting the cost of an unplanned off-road excursion.

Dawn, a customer services assistant at Tesco's Atherton superstore, was driving her Suzuki Vitara along Astley Street on Sunday night when she ran over the kerb at a traffic calming chicane, damaging her vehicle.

Dawn claims the 9.30pm incident occurred because she couldn't see warning signs as she descended the hill from Tyldesley.

But she says she is counting her blessings that she was driving an on-off road vehicle which stood the impact better than most vehicles would.

She said: "It was first time I had travelled down Astley Street since the new road layout was introduced. Luckily I was only travelling at about 20 miles per hour. The road is badly lit, I didn't see any warnings and hit the kerb badly damaging a wheel.

"If I'd been a motorcyclist I could have been killed. The way the road has been narrowed is a death trap. There is a very serious accident waiting to happen. There are give way markings but you can't see them in the dark."

A spokesman for Wigan Council said: "We are carefully investigating the events of the weekend. We would be very grateful if the lady would write to the director of engineering to tell him in detail of the circumstances."

Last week the Journal highlighted local criticisms and support for the calming measures and this week the directional warning signs were missing. Also a steel pavement pole carrying a road hump warning sign situated after the pinch-point had been flattened to the ground.