Birmingham's oldest lollipop lady knocked down

Dec 15 2008 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

She added: “People don’t even think that they need to slow down, they’re more concerned with getting to work in the mornings and they’re not even thinking about the children.

“It was shocking to hear about what happened to Maureen and we were very upset by it, but it wasn’t a surprise, not when you’ve seen how fast people go along that road.”

Marie said just hours after Maureen was hurt on December 1, a lollipop man drafted in to replace her had a near miss with a driver.

Ms Stuart said she agreed with the parents and would take the matter up with Birmingham City Council. “Road safety is something that is very important to me and I’ve invested a lot of time into looking at safer routes to school for children,” she said.

“I’ve been down there and I’ve seen the road in question and there’s no doubt that more needs to be done. When you pass other schools you see much more in the way of signs and lights to slow people down.”

She added: “What happened to Maureen was terrible but it is sad that it’s taken something like that to spark a campaign to improve the safety of the road.”

Maureen’s husband James: “It’s good to see there’s so many signatures there and we can only hope that it does something to help.”

He said Maureen was improving and the couple hoped she could be home for Christmas.