a letter to the European Parliament

Dear European Union,

I am the mother of 13 year old beautiful Hope Fennell who was trapped under
a 17.5 tonne truck, on Kings Heath High Street along the A435 corridor while
on her way back from school. The collision took place on a puffin crossing,
on 07/11/2011 at 17:09. This time of day is an extremely busy one, with ten
schools situated just off the A435 corridor. Despite the numbers of
schoolchildren crossing, there are no warning signs to lorries and all sizes
of HGV’s are currently permitted on this road at all times of day.

Hope was trapped under this huge vehicle for over 20 minutes. She was
crushed to death. By the time the HGV was lifted with special equipment it
was too late. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hope had huge potential to become a good citizen and a valuable member of
society. She lost her life in this sudden and horrific way totally
unnecessarily.

There are no words for me to explain to you how heart-breaking her death has
been for me and Hope’s two teenage siblings. We are currently going through
the criminal justice system with the HGV driver, only to discover that
crimes leading to road deaths are not taken as seriously as other crimes.
This so-called accident has raised many questions. We knew that Hope was a
careful road user and, at the time of the collision, the HGV was creeping
forward at minimum speed. This has generated many questions for the coroner
to hopefully provide answers to. Please find a copy attached.

As Hope’s family, we prepared a powerpoint presentation (attached),
gratefully accepting the platform given to us by Kings Heath Residents Forum
to hold a public meeting about the death. The aim was to collectively try to
make sense of what happened, to talk about what happened to my daughter and
to report to the local community our initial findings on the contributing
factors. The meeting was held shortly after Hope’s death in January 2012.
The meeting was well-attended.

There were many contributing factors to Hope’s death. Above all, we were
struck by the fact that Hope’s death was part of an established “trend” of
similar deaths along the A435 corridor, which had previously been termed by
a journalist as ‘the trail of floral tributes’ in 2008.
Moreover, there is a long history of residents’ concerns being raised about
HGV-related deaths with many missed opportunities to do take serious
preventative measures. So people kept being dragged under HGV’s because the
cabs are so high up as to create blind corners, ensuring that drivers are
unable to see pedestrians or cyclists. Or indeed to experience any sensation
when they pass over their bodies.

The key question for the police, the coroner and the BCC is as follows:
since deaths under HGVs is a regular occurrence, clearly indicating the
unsuitability of the A435 for HGVs passing by a narrow street, why have no
steps been taken to prevent future fatalities? My understanding is that
after every fatal accident there should be recommendations made by the
police and the coroner with the aim of preventing any future such incidents.
Especially where there is a clear pattern of similar collisions.

One of the many questions the family and local community has raised with the
coroner and the police concerned the structure of a puffin crossing. These
crossings have been designed with the vulnerable road users in mind as the
sensors regulate the crossing time according to the speed/ability of the
pedestrian. They are designed with railings, since these direct the
pedestrian right into the vision range of the sensor. At the time of the
collision, there was no railings, but an unsuitable number of street
furniture, insufficient crossing time and width of the crossing was not
appropriate either especially bearing in mind that this is the crossing most
populated by children in the UK. We have also realised that with 10 schools
at close range and being one of the busiest shopping streets in Europe it
was astounding that there was no signs to alert the lorry drivers of that
fact in fact it seems that the council has been focusing more on “Britain in
Bloom ” theme then the pedestrian safety of the area.

The focus has been on opening more businesses without any impact analysis
regarding public safety. After a very useful conversation with Duncan Vernon
ROSPA I have requested a comprehensive analysis of the High Street. With the
help of one of my local councillors we have got hold of a Risk Assessment of
the High Street with recommendations and accident analysis with many things
to be changed/improved in order to improve the traffic and the safety of
people using this road (thousands daily and a total of 50,000 every
weekend). This clearly shows that there were a number of things which were
neglected by the BCC which may have contributed to the horrific death of my
daughter. Please refer to the Atkins report.

A local Safety Commission has been set up to help to improve the issues
identified on our road. We have started a campaign in order to raise
awareness and initiate some changes in the way traffic is managed. You can
access our campaign page on www.liveinhhope.net<https://www.liveinhhope.net>
with an e-petition link, you can also see some of our activities on FB page
livein Hope for example Hope’s Rally reports by the BBC, a live interview
with WM and BBC lunch news and a link to Road Peace the National Charity for
the victims of Road Crashes.

As Hope’s mum, I realise that I lost my daughter because of system failures
and negligence by BCC. All the indications show that she is not the first to
lose her precious life, nor will she be the last.

Unless we act now, to find who, or which parties were and are responsible
for pedestrian or public safety on these roads, who thought that if they did
not act upon previous fatalities the problem would cease to exist, and
whoever has agreed that it was acceptable to mix huge engines with vast
blind spots on along a narrow street that is heavily populated by shoppers
and school children, despite similar recurring tragedies involving the most
vulnerable.

Hope was only just 13.

She loved her life.

She had a right to her life.

It has been an extreme hardship to bring up three children in a foreign
country with no family to support me and an eldest daughter who suffers from
autism.

 I have had a right to a family life.

This has been destroyed by one
of the biggest tragedies a human being may have to face, sudden and violent
death of my child. My son has also left home since the tragedy; the grief
has torn my family apart. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and signed off
work, which will eventually force what remains of my family out of the house
we currently live in.

I have lost my daughter due to system failures and a lack of transparency of the BCC and public officers’ collective neglect of their duty of care to the people of Kings Heath.

May I therefore ask for this case to be looked at by the European Council and help me to bring justice to our case.. This will help many others too.

Also to bring forward to vote in favour of the proposals
re:safer lorry designs as well as the mandatory use of the existing
technology which help the driver detect the most vulnerable road users
within the proximity of their HGV and in the massive Blind spots.

Kind Regards and Many Thanks

Nazan Fennell

-The A435 kings Heath High Street, Alcester road has been referred to as the
wrong kind of “floral trail” by a local newspaper in 2008 we can see that
local residents calling out for change then with what seems to be repeating
response from the Local Businesses

#liveinhope #humanrights #childrensrights #childroadsafety #safercycling #roadcrimes