Crossing plea after Brierley Hill death of father, 53

Mr Clarke had crossed Pedmore Road in Brierley Hill almost every day for the last 16 years as he walked more than a mile to work at HM Revenue & Customs at The Waterfront, next to the Merry Hill shopping centre.

But, on Friday morning, he was hit by a car and suffered fatal head injuries, leaving his widow Dorretta, daughter Rebecca and son David heartbroken.

Mrs Clarke, aged 51, of Lantern Road, Dudley Wood, Netherton, said: "I often used to walk to work with him because I'm a cleaner at Debenhams in Merry Hill – but on Friday I wasn't on the 7am shift so wasn't with him.

"There are hundreds of people who cross that road every day from the nearby housing estate but the only crossing is at the top of Merry Hill lights, at the Quarry Bank end.

"There's no crossing at the bottom end where he had to go over the road, which is several hundred yards away from the top lights. There should be a crossing somewhere along there."

Mr Clarke was looking forward to the birth of his first grandchild – and to a day out with his daughter at Sandown Park races on Saturday, the day after he died.

Rebecca Clarke, aged 28, of Reddall Hill Road, Cradley Heath, who also worked with her dad as an HMRC officer, said: "He loved horse racing and a pint of beer at Ma Pardoe's in Netherton. He was really looking forward to going to Sandown with me – he'd written on his computer the time we had to set out and the postcode to get there."

Miss Clarke told how police, who found her father's HMRC card when he died and had asked at the office for contact details for the family, arrived at her home on Friday at 8.50am to give her the news of his death.

"I was just about to go into work when the police came . I went with them to tell mum what had happened," she added.

"It's a big shock – it's not like he'd been ill. He was very fit and did so much walking – you had to run to keep up with him."

Mr Clarke, who used to play bowls for Old Hill British Legion and The Woodman pub in Netherton, was brought up in Quarry Bank. His parents, Raymond, aged 79, and Joan, 78, live in Heath Road, Netherton.

He and his wife, who grew up with her parents, George and Joyce Pearshouse in Hall Street, Old Hill, met 34 years ago, when they both worked at the Whitehouse hammer factory in Cradley Heath. They would have celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary in July, and in October their 25-year-old son David's partner Kayleigh Williams is due to give birth to their first grandchild.