Calls for safer road after boy hit by car

There are calls for a new pedestrian crossing on Stokesley Road in Guisborough after a 12-year-old boy was hit by a car

The mother of a 12-year-old boy who was hit by a car on a busy road is calling on a council to install a new pedestrian crossing.

Natalie King said her son Michael suffered shoulder and pelvic injuries after being struck on Stokesley Road, in Guisborough.

She said it was not the driver's fault and that the accident highlighted the lack of safe crossing points on the road.

Redcar and Cleveland Council said it had installed speed activated signs which flash with a "slow down" message, as well as additional road safety markings.

Miss King said her son had to be treated in hospital and needed to use a wheelchair during his recovery.

“If there had been a pedestrian crossing, Mikey’s first instinct would have been to use it and not just run across the road willy-nilly which is what the kids are used to doing," she said.

“Pedestrian crossings will only be an inconvenience to drivers who speed because the safe drivers will understand and respect the fact that pedestrians need to cross the road.”

Natalie King said her son Michael needed to use a wheelchair during his recovery

The council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Councillor Carl Quartermain, said work was being carried out to improve safety on the road.

He said: “We will introduce additional safety road markings, resurface the worn red strip crossing point, and have contacted traffic police to monitor the road.

“I’ve also committed to a further traffic survey to establish if more pedestrian road crossing measures and enforcement are needed.”