WORRIED parents and teachers are demanding action to improve safety on a major Southampton road after a car ploughed down an embankment on to a busy footpath just yards from three schools.

The crash happened minutes before children were due to finish lessons for the day at Fairisle Infant and Nursery and Fairisle Junior schools, when the route would normally be full with pupils from nearby Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill.

Horrified parents picking up youngsters were yesterday reflecting on the lucky escape they and their children had had.

Just before 3.15pm, the Volkswagen Passat careered out of control down the embankment, spinning round twice as it flew through the air before crashing down on its roof on the enclosed path between the two underpasses.

Moments earlier, the car had collided with a Vauxhall Zafira as they both left the Lordshill roundabout, heading along Lordshill Way.

Mum Christine Murray, who took the dramatic picture of the wrecked car, said: “It would have been an absolute tragedy if it was seconds later.

“It was pretty horrendous.

That’s all our little babies up there that are coming out of school – it’s quite scary.

“We’re going to get a petition together because there needs to be barriers there.”

The three schools, all within a few hundred yards of the crash, have more than 1,300 pupils between them.

The parents’ safety calls were backed by Fairisle Junior head, Peter Howard, who said he had spoken to colleagues at the other schools and would be urgently discussing improved barriers with Southampton City Council.

He said: “We were very lucky. It happened about three minutes before we come out of school, and Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill happened to have a student review day.

“They come out of school at three, so had it been any other day of the year those children from Oasis Academy would have been walking under the underpass at the time.”

Police closed the road after the crash, on Thursday, to allow the Passat to be recovered.

The driver, a 53-year-old Gosport man, was taken to Southampton General Hospital with “minor”

injuries.

A 59-year-old woman from Southampton who was driving the Zafira was unhurt.

Southampton’s transport chief, Cllr Daniel Fitzhenry last night said safety at the roundabout is being examined as part of the development of the new Oasis Academy. He said: “We’ll have a good look at this part of the road network and assess what can be done.”