Parents horrified by crash outside school which badly hurt two girls set up their own safety patrols
A group of determined parents have taken it upon themselves to control the speed of traffic outside their children's school days after an accident hospitalised two girls.
The four parents of children at Old Church Primary CE School in Darlaston have formed a traffic patrol on Willenhall Street outside the school, with two each standing at points on the left and right hand side of Alma Street near the entrance to the school.
Natasha Mason, Natasha Stevens, Lorna Turner and Catherine Smith started patrolling on Monday following the accident last Friday, in which two girls were hit by a car on Willenhall Street.
Ms Stevens and Ms Mason said the accident happened in front of parents and children leaving the school and left one girl with a fractured spine and another with a fractured pelvis, with both still in hospital at present.
Ms Stevens said: "We were collecting our children from school and usually have to wait for traffic to stop because there's no crossing and we want to make sure it's safe.
"Both sides of traffic had stopped, but this other car had overtaken a car which had stopped to let us cross and hit the two girls at about 35 miles an hour - so it was quite an impact and happened in front of a lot of children and their parents.
"People don't realise that this road is 20 miles per hour and there aren't that many signs up to show it."
Ms Mason said: "The incident was very traumatic for the families who were there.
"Everyone there rushed to help. I used my coat and a cardigan from my car to cover one of them, someone called the ambulance and the headteacher came out to assist.
