Safe Speed Forums

CHILDREN walking to school had a narrow escape after two cars mounted the kerb to avoid an on-coming lorry in Little Hallingbury.

Witnesses who saw the lorry swerve into the opposite lane on Monday morning said the other vehicles were forced onto the pavement and passed just metres from youngsters heading to Little Hallingbury Primary.

Mum Marie Swann told the Observer one of the cars, a blue Peugeot, shot past her and her two young children, aged five and three, before smashing into a metal road sign. It was a "miracle" no-one had been hurt, she added.

A black BMW, with two children strapped in the back, also drove up onto the pavement.

Now Mrs Swann and other concerned parents are calling for extra road safety measures, such as speed cameras, to be introduced in Lower Road to protect their children.

"It was lucky nobody was hurt," she said. "It was very frightening and if a car had hit a child, they could have been seriously injured or killed."

Brian McCraith, chairman of Little Hallingbury Parish Council, said speeding cars in the village had been a problem for years and the council had been lobbying the police to try to get improvements made.

"It's something the parish council takes very seriously," he said. "The road is getting very busy and understandably parents are concerned, and we've been working very hard to do something about it.

"Regrettably though, it will probably take until someone is killed before anything is done."

A spokeswoman for the Essex Safety Camera Partnership said on Tuesday that a mobile speed camera to cover Lower Road would be operational within the next few months, but details of its exact location and how often it would be there were still to be confirmed.

"We are hoping to start enforcement very soon to cover the area near to the school and are waiting for the police to identify a site for it."