A traffic accident in which a young girl was injured has revived campaigns for better safety at a“nightmare crossing” in Ipswich.

The youngster, believed to be 12 years old, was walking to school near the junction between Tuddenham Road and Belvedere Road on Tuesday morning when she was hit by a car and injured her leg.

Although paramedics said the injuries suffered on this occasion were not life-threatening, parents fear it will take a child to die before their calls for a safer crossing along that stretch of road are met.

Karen Densham, whose youngest daughter was walking to Northgate High School with the girl when she was injured, began campaigning for traffic calming measures along Tuddenham Road five years ago but claims Suffolk County Council – the highways authority – refused her requests for “20’s plenty” signs or zebra crossings.

“We just kept coming up against a brick wall,” she said. “It’s going to take a child to die before anyone takes any notice and we don’t want that to happen.”

A county council spokesman, however, said that surveys in the area had failed to provide any “clear evidence” of a speeding problem.

“There has been one minor accident in the last three years and no pedestrians were involved,” the spokesman added.

Mrs Densham disagrees and claims says the road has been a “nightmare” to cross ever since her involvement with St Helen’s Primary School’s Walking Bus scheme five years ago. “There was not a single position along the whole of Tuddenham Road where we felt it was safe to cross as the cars would come belting along,” she said.

The mother-of-two is hopeful one of the ward’s current county councillors may be more helpful.

Councillor Sarah Adams, whose children also attend schools in the area, has expressed her support for the campaign having received “quite a few” complaints about the road.

“We’ve been saying it is an accident waiting to happen and now that accident has happened,” she said.

Sufffolk County Council said it would continue to monitor the speed of traffic along the road.