Viral zebra crossing crashes prompt inspectionon November 24, 2022 at 6:08 am

A man living near a zebra crossing which went viral on social media after a spate of crashes has appealed for help, saying he fears someone will “die on my doorstep”.

Residents near the crossing on Horton Grange Road in west Bradford say they witness near misses “every day”.

Tahir Zeb spent £1,800 on CCTV cameras to film accidents after he felt Bradford Council wasn’t going to act.

The local authority said it would be carrying out an “immediate inspection”.

Mr Zeb, who lives yards away from the crossing, says he and other locals have campaigned for a pelican crossing to be installed.

He has recorded CCTV footage of accidents over the last four years to provide proof of the dangers, with several instances of cyclists and pedestrians being struck by cars.

No-one pictured in the video above was seriously injured, residents who helped at the scene told the BBC.

Mr Zeb said: “The council need to do something urgently, they’re putting money before someone’s life here – I don’t want to see someone die on my doorstep.

“It’s getting too serious, the kids are waiting for one car to stop and are assuming the other side will automatically stop too.”

His nephew recently uploaded footage from the cameras to TikTok, where the video gained more than 1.6m views.

“A child has done more work in moving this forward then any of us put together by uploading it, we’re so proud of him as he felt it was dangerous and was worried for the safety of other children,” said Mohammad Haleem, who runs a nearby general store.

The business owner previously took a petition to the council with hundreds of signatures during a “decade of campaigning” but says no action has yet been taken.

“It’s supposed to be the safest place to cross, but people young and old are scared of it,” he said.

“Traffic lights would help a lot, because red means red.”

Mohammad Azeem, another local resident, said he “nearly got ran over” on Monday by a driver who wasn’t looking out for pedestrians.

“There’s an incident every day, I sit and watch it from the garden and there’s always a near miss or an accident,” he said.

In a statement, Bradford Council said: “We understand the local concerns about this crossing and we will carry out an immediate inspection.

“Improvement works were carried out in 2018 to replace the existing beacons with high visibility LED units and enhanced white lining and the location is awaiting funding to be converted to a signalled crossing and this work will take place as soon as we can.”

The now-notorious zebra crossing is at the bottom of a hill on a busy 30mph limit road near a takeaway, a hairdresser and a jeweller.

There’s a couple of primary schools nearby, with a constant flow of children and parents using it for a short time after the school bells ring.

Those living nearby assured me if I waited long enough I’d witness a near miss.

Sure enough, during the hour I visited I saw a woman walk out half way, obscured by cars waiting either side of the crossing, when a car heading in the opposite direction narrowly missed her after failing to see her emerge from behind the standing traffic.

Many vehicles join Horton Grange Road at two junctions adjoining the crossing, meaning drivers turning from the smaller roads have very little time to react if traffic has already given way for pedestrians crossing the main road.

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