A petition to protect pedestrians from serious injury by cars on ‘dangerous’ Brockley Road in Lewisham has been signed by over 700 people – after amassing 500 signatures in one day.

Local residents are calling for urgent action from Lewisham Council after a 10-year-old girl was left in a critical condition following a collision on Brockley Road last month.

Siobhan Armstrong, 37, the parent who started the petition, told Eastlondonlines: “Our children don’t have a choice. They have to get to school… No one seems to want to do anything about it, it’s insane. We have no other choice but to put our children in danger every single day.”

For many years, the stretch – which the petition calls “very wide and straight” – located outside Beecroft Garden Primary School has seen frequent traffic accidents, including excessive speeding and several cars mounting the pavement. This road is meant to be a 20mph zone.

Armstrong said: “We basically need to do something before someone gets killed. It is not if, it’s when. It is inevitable with the way the situation is at the moment that there is just no action being taken at all.”

In June, cars crashed into two estate agents – Acorn Brockley Estate Agents and Bryan & Keegan – after speeding drivers lost control of their vehicles. It was the second such incident to affect Bryan & Keegan in three months.

Three weeks ago, a 60-year-old man was left in critical condition after a hit-and-run on November 1. He is still fighting for his life in hospital. Police are appealing for witnesses.

The most recent accident occurred on Thursday at 10pm, when a cyclist was knocked off his bike. A resident of Brockley Road, Freya Caldwell, witnessed the incident: “I heard this bang and saw this guy on his bike get knocked off by a car and he flew about 5 metres… he looked really shaken by it and everyone around was really shaken… the car then drove off.”

Caldwell told ELL that the unidentified cyclist was able to continue his journey, however the group of witnesses were left discussing how dangerous the road is. Caldwell said she has “been nearly hit so many times”.  

According to TfL, there were 884 road casualties in Lewisham in 2020. Five of these were fatal.

The petition demands that Lewisham Council and the Metropolitan Police take responsibility and provide funding for better road safety provisions in the area, such as speed cameras and traffic calming, before a tragedy occurs. The petition calls for particular focus on the wide stretch of road between Beecroft Road and Comerford Road.

Residents are “pleading with the council and police to do something before another child gets hurt.”

The Metropolitan Police is responsible for installing speed cameras – though they are only installed at sites where a pattern of serious or fatal speed-related collisions has been identified. They are not installed following isolated incidents or instances of speeding.

Lewisham Council told ELL they will respond when the petition closes and it is formally submitted to them. Metropolitan Police have been approached for comment.

Slideshow pics: Sophie Donne