SIR – In response to readers who feel I was negligent in the way I tried to cross Hallow Road with my boys and their bikes (Worcester News front page, Saturday, June 27), I’d like to say the following.

I thought carefully about how to cross this road. I’ve crossed at the bollards before but you end up on a narrow pavement you have to walk one behind the other, which feels dangerous. So I took the boys to the point I felt was safest – opposite Greenhill Lane.

I crossed with Alex then I went back to get Harvey (two boys kindly stopped and waited with Harvey while I crossed back to get him) saying loudly the entire way “Wait there, Harvey, wait there.” I stepped onto the pavement, said thanks to the boys who’d waited and was in the process of taking Harvey’s hand when he ran into the road. I’ve asked myself, “What could I have done differently?”, “Should I have crossed the bikes first and then the boys?” “Should I have crossed the boys and then the bikes?”

The only answer is I should not have tried to cross the road with my boys and their bikes. And this offers the strongest possible argument for a crossing on the Hallow Road. I moved to Hallow for the wonderful primary school and the glorious countryside. There is a safe cycle path along the river and the only way to get to that is by crossing Hallow Road, onto Greenhill Lane and heading down to the river.

So, if I am not to cross the road because it is so dangerous then that entire stretch of Worcestershire countryside is closed to my family and others who wish to do the same thing. And that is unjust. There has to be a zebra crossing or traffic lights – something which forces traffic to stop and allow people to cross. Something has to happen before someone else is hurt.

KAREN GREGOR,
Hallow.