No.10 visit for a Trimley St Martin pupil

Earlier this month, Roman Osborne from Trimley St Martin Primary School, near Felixstowe delivered his own personal letter to 10 Downing Street, telling the Prime Minister about his own personal experience of being hit by a van outside his primary school in February.

The driver wasn’t speeding or driving recklessly — witnesses told me the vehicle was travelling at about 20 miles an hour.

Luckily, Roman recovered. But the impact was so severe that he spent three days in hospital with a broken hip and many more months recovering.

His parents told me that if it hadn’t been for him landing on his rucksack — which shielded him from a more serious injury and potential head trauma — the outcome could have been tragic.

Roman’s story reminds us that improving road safety around our schools isn’t simply about reducing speeds to 20 miles an hour, though I dread to imagine how much worse it could have been had the driver been going 30 or 40 or faster.

Roman also met the road safety charity BRAKE, and lots of MPs who are backing my #SaferAtTheGates campaign - which is a campaign to make it law that Councils have to work with Schools to bring forward road safety measures where there is evidence of risk.