Mum's crossing plea to motorists

A SHAKEN mother is pleading for motorists to slow down on a zebra crossing next to a primary school.

Kirsty Leonard, 39, of Paddock Close, was walking her five-year-old daughter Niamh to school at King Offa Primary at around 8.20am last Friday when she stepped onto the crossing at the bottom of London Road and narrowly avoided a terrible accident.

An impatient motorist swerving around a minibus sped through, missing Kirsty and Niamh by feet. For Kirsty, a mother-of-two, it was the latest in a long line of near-misses.

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"He just came round the corner and slammed on his brakes. I'm worried," she said. "The traffic doesn't seem to stop - it's a daily occurrence. They act as though zebra crossings are optional.It's a crossing used by children. Drivers need to slow down and be more aware of that."

Traffic beside the busy junction on King Offa Way is heaviest in the mornings, as parents of children at King Offa and 1st Friends Day Nursery, Chapel Path, vie with commuters to start their days.

And with county council recently announcing a cut of 1.93m from their transport department - specifically road safety and speed management - it may be some time before Kirsty gets her wish to have signs or speed bumps installed along London Road.

A county council spokesman said: "When providing a crossing, we check average vehicle speeds are appropriate and motorists will be able to see the pedestrians using it. Records show there have not been any injury accidents at this site in the last three years and, as such, it would not take priority for additional work over other areas where there have been."

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Jenni Miller, headteacher of King Offa, said making the roads safer for children to cross was a priority.

"In our school travel plan we looked at the way roads are increasingly more busy and how motorists seem to be more unaware of pedestrians," she said. "We are very grateful to the work Mrs Hickson, our lollipop lady, does in seeing children across the road on Down Road and sometimes noting when motorists have driven 'recklessly'."