A NEW safety crossing could be added to a busy road where a woman suffered potentially life-changing injuries after being hit by a car.

Highworth Town Council unanimously agreed to ask the borough to immediately consider setting up a way for people to cross a difficult section of St Michael’s Avenue without worrying about cars speeding round the corner.

The 30mph horseshoe-shaped road provides access to several streets and residential estates in the town and is regularly used and crossed by children and families going to school or elderly neighbours popping to the shops, GP surgery or bus stations.

The area where the collision happened is a hotspot for pedestrians because the housing along the road is opposite a cluster of shops, schools and a pub on Newburgh Place.

The accident happened at 10.30pm on November 20 and prompted many concerned members of the public and staff from Westrop Primary School to contact their councillors and urge them to take action which would prevent future accidents.

Coun Maureen Penny represents Highworth and is the borough council’s cabinet member for highways.

She investigated the history of traffic accidents on the road revealed that three collisions causing minor injury had happened at points along the avenue and two slight injury collisions and one serious collision had happened on the junction over the last decade. 

Coun Penny and two fellow borough council colleagues who also represent Highworth, Coun Steve Weisinger and Coun Alan Bishop, said they had asked for extra safety measures to be installed along the road every year but without success.

Around the time of the last collision, Alison Cross-Jones tried to set up a community speedwatch team.

She told the Adver: “I am surprised that there are not more accidents happening on this road, it’s so dangerous and there are a lot of points where accidents could happen.

“It’s so busy in the mornings but there are no signs to say there are schools nearby or that children and their parents might be crossing, no pedestrian crossings and no traffic calming measures.

“I see so many people going like a bat out of hell down the steep hill. It’s awful, my friends and family have had a few close calls, something needs to be done.”