A SENIOR Newport councillor revealed his concerns over the safety of Newport's SDR in the wake of yesterday's accident.

The chairman of the the council’s overview and scrutiny committee for street scene, regeneration and safety, Councillor Roger Jeavons said he has concerns about the safety of the SDR.

Cllr Jeavons said the committee is concerned by the number of accidents on the road and said it is in initial talks with Morgan Vinci, which operates the road, and has invited them to make comments.

Cllr Jeavons said that as a ward councillor he has also concerns about the SDR’s roundabouts in the Lliswerry ward, their lineage and the inability for certain vehicles to move around them.

Simon Higgins, area manager for the Road Haulage Association, said there are several reasons why lorries may topple over.

But he said lorry crashes are “few and far between” and that it is only because they have more impact than a car crash, depending on what they are carrying, that we hear more about them.

The lorry crash closed the Southern Distributor Road during rush hour yesterday – making it the third crash of its kind this year.

This time a lorry’s container toppled over not far from the Ebbw Bridge roundabout and the Office of National Statistics in Newport. The driver escaped uninjured but the road was closed for around four-and-a-half hours in both directions. It caused chaos for drivers, who were advised to avoid the area.

The Accelerate Freight Limited lorry was travelling eastbound towards Newport city centre when the trailer overturned at 9.50am. The heavy load of scrap metal, which included washing machines and tyres, was recovered by a JCB at about 11.45am.

Newport-based firm Chris Spiteri and Son also helped with the recovery of the lorry and the road reopened at around 2.20pm.

The crashed lorry’s owner told the Argus: “It’s just one of those things that happens.” The Argus has reported on more than a dozen lorry crashes on the SDR since it opened in December 2004.

There have now been three similar incidents along the SDR this year. This includes an oil tanker overturning near Spytty Retail Park on July 23 and a lorry overturning by the retail park in June.