'SPEED bumps don't work,' according to anxious parents whose children run the gauntlet of two notorious streets to attend junior schools.The message – and calls for a crossing – comes after an eight-year-old, from Springfield Junior School, was injured crossing speed-bumped Bramford Lane.

By GEORGINA WROE

georgina.wroe@eveningstar.co.uk

SPEED bumps don't work, according to anxious parents whose children run the gauntlet of two notorious streets to attend junior schools.

The message – and calls for a crossing – comes after an eight-year-old, from Springfield Junior School, was injured crossing speed-bumped Bramford Lane.

Every school day morning the crowded junction with Kitchener Road is packed with children who face motorists who slow and then speed between bumps, hurrying to work.

By 3.30pm the commuters have given way to others who use the bumps as speed ramps.

One mother of a Springfield Junior school pupil accused the road bumps of making a dangerous situation even worse.

She said: "I have to take my son and pick him up every day because of the traffic. The problem with bumps is that drivers slow down going over them and then speed up. I think it makes it even more dangerous."

But without the bumps, on neighbouring Bramford Road, as parents struggle to take their children to the Infant School on Stonechat Road, the situation is just as bad.

Beverley Lewis-Pyke whose three children, Charlie, 3, Ashley, 5 and Robert, 12, cross Bramford Road twice daily and wants a crossing.

She said: "It's horrendous, the traffic here has tripled in the last few years."

She even blamed Bramford Lane traffic bumps for encouraging drivers on to parallel traffic-swamped Bramford Road.

She said: "We have been campaigning for a crossing here for years. It can take my eldest son, Robert, up to ten minutes to cross the road."

Currently two lollipop men guide children across both roads close to the schools.

But the accident which took place around 3.30pm on Friday's happened away from the busy Kitchener and Surbiton Road junction where lollipop man, John White, was on duty.

He said: "Most drivers slow down for the bumps. It is only youngsters later on who don't slow down because they use them for a ramp."

Mr White, a lollipop man for the last nine years, added: "The real problem is the rush hour. Everybody is trying to get to school at the same time as the children are being dropped off."

Mums Vicky and Debbie, who have children at both schools praised the lollipop patrols. Vicky said: "Mr White has been here for years and is absolutely excellent. If kids use the lollipop men then they will be OK."

A borough council spokeswoman denied speeds along the stretch of either road warranted a crossing.

She said: "A school crossing patrol is in place which we believe to be the best method of guiding children to and from school if used correctly.

"At this time we do not consider that the provision of a zebra crossing at this location would add a significant additional benefit for school children."