THE father of a Scottish boy killed in a road accident in Jersey has launched a campaign against shared spaces where roads and pavements are merged.
Three-year-old Clinton Pringle was knocked down and killed by a van while on holiday with his mother Stacey and other relatives.
His father Michael, who later visited the scene of the accident, says the child did not know where to run when he saw the vehicle coming towards him.
He told BBC Scotland: “There was no pavement to jump back on to, so it was confusing for him.
“Stacey did shout to him to get out of the road – but when you have not got a road and a pavement, how does a child differentiate?”
The accident happened in June 2016 when the family group, from Moodiesburn in North Lanarkshire, were crossing Tunnel Street in St Helier, which is a shared space.
Such schemes are an attempt to make drivers take more care by removing traffic signs, pedestrian crossings and even kerbs. A similar scheme operates in Kirkintilloch, near where Pringle lives. He has now joined forces with local campaigners there to highlight the dangers posed to blind, partially sighted and disabled people, as well as children.
He is part of a delegation taking a petition on the issue to Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street.
The van driver Rebekah Le Gal, 39, who admitted causing Clinton’s death by careless driving, was given a suspended jail sentence of eight months. In court it emerged she had sent a text at the wheel shortly before the collision. But her trial found that her phone use had not caused her to knock down the child.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Kaye Adams programme, Pringle said he was abroad visiting friends when the accident happened and he received a phone call from his wife telling him about the accident. “It was like a bomb had gone off in my back pocket,” he said. “It was unbelievable.”
Campaigners have previously called for a halt on the use of shared space schemes, pending “clear national guidance that explicitly addresses the needs of disabled people”.
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