RENEWED calls have been made for speed measures to be urgently introduced after a schoolgirl pedestrian was hurt following a collision with a car in a Basingstoke suburb.
The accident happened at 8.29am on Monday when a 14-year-old Year 10 Everest Community College pupil was involved in a collision on Carpenter’s Down, Popley, with a Peugeot 206 driven by a 24-year-old woman.
The schoolgirl was taken to Basingstoke hospital but returned home later in the day after her injuries were assessed to be minor.
It is the second time in two years that an Everest Community College pupil has been taken to hospital following an accident on Carpenter’s Down, and it has prompted renewed calls for the urgent introduction of planned speed reduction measures.
In December 2007, Daniel Hortin, then 11, was left fighting for his life after receiving serious head injuries in a collision with a lorry on Carpenter’s Down.
After spending a week in intensive care at Southampton General Hospital, he made a remarkable recovery and two months later his mother described her son as a “walking miracle.”
Daniel’s accident saw a review of the 40 mph speed limit in Carpenter’s Down brought forward and a series of road safety measures are now in the pipeline.
Following Monday’s accident – which happened in almost the same spot where Daniel was injured – there have been calls for the measures to be introduced as quickly as possible.
Everest deputy head teacher Jamie Perfect said: “We have already been in conversation to see what can be done about reducing the speed limit there because this does seem to be a potential accident blackspot.”
The school, which sent a letter out to students and parents on Tuesday to remind them about road safety, has been talking to Basingstoke North County Councillor Jane Frankum, who was one of the first on the scene of Daniel’s accident.
Cllr Frankum said she has been lobbying the county council’s highways department for changes to Carpen-ters Down and a reduction in speed.
“Only a few days ago, I got notification it is going forward,” she said. “We shouldn’t wait any longer. They have got the funding, they have got the plans. Get on and do it.”
The creation of a safe crossing place is the first measure proposed and a reduction in the speed limit to 30mph might follow, said Cllr Frankum.
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