THE grieving parents of a teenage girl killed while trying to cross a dual carriageway have set up a trust in her memory to help fund a campaign aimed at preventing another tragedy. Michelle Bolton.

And they warned that they and other residents on a Hartlebury housing estate may leave unless safety measures are carried out on the road that splits the village in two. Flowers left at the side of the busy A449 where Michelle Bolton died in a road accident.

Attending a meeting of a newly formed action group tomorrow will be the parents of 16-year-old Michelle Bolton, of Waresley Park, who was fatally injured in an accident with a car on the Kidderminster-Worcester road three weeks ago.

Terry and Judith Bolton, who have two other children aged 15 and 10, branded the A449 that separates the main village from the Waresley housing estate as "a killer".

They said the accident was a nightmare they had always feared since they moved to the village two years ago and had taken part in a letters campaign to urge measures to make the road safer to cross.

Speaking after Michelle's funeral at St James's Church, Hartlebury, on Monday, attended by many of Michelle's Stourport High School friends and teachers, they described how neighbours with children on the 60-home estate had feared there was "a tragedy waiting to happen".

Many had teenage children who had friends on the other side of the busy high-speed road and there were mothers who had to cross with young children to get to the village school.

Mr Bolton said: "Michelle was on the way home from being out with friends. She had only been going out on her own a few weeks. She was dropped off at her friend's house because she didn't want to be on her own in a taxi. We always said, get a taxi and that is what she did."

He said the family had come to the new estate never thinking proper provision would not be made for crossing to the village where there was a post office, school and hairdressers' shop where Michelle worked on Saturday mornings.

He said he could not see the family staying if something was not done about the fast stretch of road and believed other residents felt the same.

Neighbour and action group spokesman Margaret Murcott, also a worried parent of teenagers, said feelings were running high about the accident because of the many letters already exchanged with the Highways Agency warning of the dangers.

"It's a cruel twist of fate that Terry and Judith, who wrote about this two years ago, should be the ones to suffer the tragedy," she said.

The couple have set up a trust in Michelle's name dedicated to raising funds for the action group which has joined Hartlebury Parish Council to plan a public meeting on March 29. A petition is also planned.

The meeting will invite representatives of the highways authorities to explore residents' demands for safety measures such as speed limits and single lanes at the village junction.

The group will also urge a bigger central reserve and a pedestrian crossing with lights in the stretch they dub "a blackspot" because of previous accidents.