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Birmingham road protesters witness a fresh smash
FAMILIES gathering to protest about safety on a Birmingham road where a teenage boy was seriously injured were caught up in a new road smash.
Campaigners demanding safety measures on a busy Sutton Coldfield road watched in horror as a car swerved to avoid a protester and smashed into another vehicle.
The campaigners want an "ancient" zebra crossing on the busy Eachelhurst Road dual carriageway in Walmley replaced with a controlled pelican crossing.
They say a more modern approach is needed to ensure traffic using the 40mph road stops for children and the elderly.
The campaigners brought the road to a standstill for ten minutes to protest for the upgrade, which has so far been refused by the city council.
They launched a campaign and raised a petition last month following a string of accidents including one in which 14-year-old Bradley Wilkes suffered a fractured skull.
Resident Maria Duffy said that police surveys had clocked average speeds of 45mph with a top speed of 83mph.
She said: "The council's own rules state that where the average speed of 85 per cent of the traffic on a road is above 35mph then there should be a Pelican crossing not a zebra crossing.
"The crossing itself is in a very poor state of repair with posts that are crooked and, therefore, not secure in the ground and globes that are pitched at an angle that makes it look as though they are about to fall off."
The council has only promised to consider the request along with all the others it receives throughout Birmingham.
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