“It’s a miracle nobody was killed” – calls for speed reduction in road where car crashed into nursery school

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents fear a family could be killed if Transport for London doesn’t impose a 20mph speed limit on a South London road where a car crashed into a nursery.

People say it is a “miracle” that nobody died after a car veered off Amersham Road in Lewisham and slammed into a fence surrounding  LEYF pre-school on Tuesday of last week.

Firefighters and police rushed to the nursery in New Cross after a black Kia careened into a wall outside of it at around 5pm.

Photographs of the aftermath show a blue fence and sign for the nursery leaning over with bits of rubble strewn across the footpath.

People say they have been calling on Transport for London (TfL), which manages the road, and Labour-led Lewisham council to take action to improve road safety on the road for years without success.

Residents and the nursery are now calling on politicians to introduce traffic-calming measures immediately, after years of delays.

One resident, Joshua, who declined to give his surname, said he had been asking officials to improve safety on the road since he moved into the area six years ago.

He said: “The car went past the protective rails and through the nursery. It was a miracle that nobody was killed. It’s a miracle I’m not saying that a whole family has been wiped out.

“It’s the only road in the whole chain of roads that’s 30mph. It encourages people to speed up. We keep getting fobbed off by TfL. They said there was no funding available for changes.

“If they can’t change anything else, can’t they just make it 20mph? It would cost nothing.

“I’ve seen tens and tens of accidents since I moved here. I’ve seen lots of near misses and garden walls being taken out.”

A spokeswoman for the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), which runs the nursery, said: “The safety of our children is our top priority and thankfully none of them were present during the time of the incident.

“LEYF, along with local residents, continue to lobby local MPs to improve the road safety in the surrounding area and we welcome some decisive action to be taken without further delay.”

A TfL spokesman said: “As part of our lowering speed limits programme we have already introduced a 20mph speed limit on 80km of our roads, including all of our roads within the central London Congestion Charging zone.

“We have identified other areas across London that could benefit from similar changes in speed limit, including Amersham Road, and are now working to lower speeds on 220km of our roads across inner and outer London by 2024.”

Pictured top: The aftermath of the crash in Lewisham on August 23 (Picture: Photo supplied)