Fears over safety (From Stroud News and Journal)

Fears over safety

TWO car crashes in as many days have led teachers and parents at a Chalford primary school to call for urgent safety measures.

The vehicles crashed into walls on either side of a road used by children to walk to Christ Church primary school.

It is thought that both cars were pulling out of the road - which leads to Old Neighbourhood - when the collisions occurred.

The first incident happened at 5.30am on Wednesday after a car collided into the wall of the Noah's Ark cycle shop.

Then, at about 9.15pm the following day, police were called a second time after a Land Rover collided with another car before ploughing into the wall of a nearby wall memorial.

Sally McMurray, head at Christ Church, said urgent action was needed to prevent her pupils being injured.

"There are children walking on that stretch of road everyday and we also walk them along there when we go to the church, so we need to make sure it is safe," she said.

"It's just lucky that both incidents happened when there were no children around. It just doesn't bare thinking about."

Julie Walford, who walks her nine-year-old son Daniel along the route to school everyday, said parents have been complaining about the danger for years.

"This is an ongoing problem, and these latest accidents just highlight it," she said.

"It's the speed of the cars that is the major problem, you can hear the squealing of brakes all the way up the road.

"The speed limit should be 30 miles an hour because it is so near a school.

"We just want someone to take it seriously before something major happens."

Chris Hart, who owns Noah's Ark, had a wall knocked down in the first accident, and agreed the speed limit should be reduced.

"It's only a matter of time before we have an accident where someone is seriously hurt, and I would be devastated if that happened," he said.

John Lindsay, area traffic manager at Gloucestershire County Council, said the authority is currently looking into the issue.