Campaigners battling for a pedestrian crossing were joined by police and members of Whiteley Parish Council yesterday (Thursday), to see the scene where a three-year-old girl was knocked down by a car on Tuesday near her school.
Winchester MP Mark Oaten was also there. He has given his backing to the call for a crossing on the road, along with railings, more signs warning motorists of the school, and a 20mph limit.
"This awful accident needs to be a wake-up call to the county to take urgent action and put in place a crossing before Christmas."
The incident had also prompted the parish council to renew its call for a crossing, on Yew Tree Drive, which it says has long been "an accident waiting to happen."
The girl, believed to be a pupil at nearby Whiteley Pre School, was hit by the car as she crossed the road at Gull Coppice, at 3pm on Tuesday.
She was taken, unconscious, to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, with head injuries. As The Chronicle went to press her condition was described as "stable and comfortable".
The parish council says it has been campaigning to the county council for pelican crossings for around two years.
It says the county council did position pinch pointsa traffic calming systemalong the road in 2002, but that the measures simply don't go far enough.
"I'm frustrated and angry," said parish council highways chairman, Vivian Achwal. "We kept on telling them there was going to be a problem. They put in traffic calming measures that are supposed to slow traffic down but it's done nothing. Thirty miles an hour is just not onit's far too fast."
Mrs Achwal (47), from Saffron Way, said she wanted to see pelican crossings so that the hundreds of children who cross the road on their way to school would be safe.
"It's obvious we need it. Thank goodness the girl survived."
She said the numbers of small children using the road, coupled with the amount of parked cars, was a recipe for disaster, but whenever she had contacted Hampshire County Council it had told her there wasn't enough traffic or pedestrians to warrant a crossing.
A spokesman for the county council said the authority would be discussing travel plans with the school
He added that a traffic calming system had been put in place in 2002, which resulted in the speed limit being reduced to 30mph, but that there was not a pattern of serious accidents on the road to make crossings feasible.
"If the road was busy all day, we would do a survey to establish the need for a crossing. If it's only twice a day, a more effective way to deal with it would be a lollipop lady," he added.
"There has been a problem with recruiting lollipop ladies across the county," he said.
Tuesday's accident caused traffic chaos in Whiteley with vehicles backed up to Junction 9 of the M27.
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