A MOTHER has added an emotional plea to calls for safety improvements on a busy March road after her nine-year-old daughter broke her leg in a collision with a car.

Lucy Dunsmuir was riding her bicycle home from All Saints Primary School with her 11-year-old brother, Sam, when the accident happened outside the Plate and Porter restaurant in Station Road last Tuesday.

The traffic hotspot has been the target of a safety campaign by parents desperate to protect their children. Petitions calling for a permanent crossing and boasting more than 700 signatures were handed to councillors before Christmas.

Natalie, Lucy’s mother, said: “I signed the petition and I have written to the council in the past - about three years ago - asking for improvements. It’s not like I didn’t see it coming.

“I tried to stay calm but when you see your little girl with a face mask on in hospital it’s just horrible.

“I just thank God it’s nothing worse and it was just her leg. She might not even be here now. What if it happens to someone else and they die?

“Do they really want someone’s death on their hands? Is that what it’s going to take for them to realise that something needs to be done? How much money do you put on a life?”

The accident broke two bones in Lucy’s leg and has left her wheelchair bound for the next six weeks.

In November, parents, children and residents completed a mass walk to school to thrust the issue of road safety into the spotlight.

Campaigners blasted the current safety measures - two small islands in the middle of the road - as outdated and inadequate.

Tamsin Nichols, who has spearheaded the campaign, said: “We have been a little bit too late for this girl but let’s not let any more kids suffer.

“It’s already a nightmare. To be honest, we feel like we have failed her. It could have quite easily been her head instead of her leg.”

Mrs Dunsmuir added: “Sometimes we can stand there for five minutes in the morning and nobody will let us cross. She’s a lot more fearful everytime we cross the road now.”