Hundreds protest Birmingham road deaths as residents admit ‘I’m petrified of using the pavement’

Hundreds of people turned out to campaign for safer streets in Birmingham – days after another tragic loss. BirminghamLive joined cyclists and pedestrians in saying more needs to be done to keep them safe in the West Midlands, with one resident who attended the event admitting she was “petrified” to walk on the pavement.

Around 200 people turned out for a protest organized by the Better Streets for Birmingham campaign group yesterday, April 20. It is days after the death of Mayar Yahia, four, who was murdered on Upper Highgate Street on Sunday 14 April.

Talks were given by local resident Rob Kewley, Mat MacDonald (of Safe Streets Now) and Peter Foley, headteacher of St Bernard’s Catholic Primary School, Wake Green Road. Mr Foley revealed how he spent time at work fearing for his children’s safety on Wake Green Road, where speeding past school gates and obstructive parking is a daily problem.

Raed more: The names and faces of people who have died on our roads

Mr Kewley, a Yardley Wood Road resident, said: “Residents, school children and other road users should not have to live in fear of walking on pavements and trying to cross Yardley Wood Road, but this is exactly what we face every day. We have come to expect inaction from the police and the council on this issue, we have to face the fact that Birmingham’s relationship with the car industry and the car industry has left an appalling legacy in terms of community cohesion, public health and safety.

“While engine production has been massively reduced in Birmingham, we are still faced with a car industry that feels it is okay to market and sell vehicles capable of generating irresponsible levels of power and noise, while regulations have not kept pace. “

Elaine Mahar, another resident of Yardley Wood Road, said: “I have lived on Yardley Wood Road for 38 years. I love my home, my neighbors and the convenient shops on my way. So why do I wonder so often whether I should leave Simple: the excessive speed of cars and frequent serious collisions, at night and during the day.

“I rebuilt my garden wall three times and had to rebuild my window. Several cars parked on our lot were cancelled. This experience was also shared by my neighbors. The latest collision by a speeding driver wiped out five cars. outside our house and that wasn’t the worst of it.

“Yardley Wood Road is a residential road but I’m scared to walk along the pavement. Despite all the clashes, no one in authority has shown interest in resolving this desperate situation affecting hundreds of families along it”.

Another protester said: “We stood together today not just in Birmingham but in solidarity with other events taking place in 20 locations across the country to demand that the safety of our streets is properly prioritized. Following the unimaginably tragic collisions that took place on the streets of our city. Last weekend, including one where a four-year-old child was killed, our action in Birmingham took on an added urgency today.

“Those who oppose these measures on the grounds that they are anti-motorists might be prepared to accept a status quo where a child dies violently and suddenly on our streets, but we are not. We will continue this fight until no one dies in collisions on our roads, as has been achieved in many other cities around the world.

“Together we will ensure that the streets of Birmingham, and the country as a whole, become the safe, sustainable and joyful places we all deserve to live in.”