Is this Britain's most DANGEROUS zebra crossing? Shocking CCTV reveals series of accidents at road crossing highlighted by Jeremy Vine after motorist nearly hit cyclist.
The terrifying catalogue of accidents – four of them in the last year – were all at a crossing in Bradford, which was originally highlighted by Jeremy Vine on Twitter.
The shocking footage from this week showed a boy cycling slowly across, avoiding one car which fails to stop, only to be struck by a second one.
But exclusive CCTV footage from the same spot obtained by MailOnline shows just what a lucky escape the boy had.
Other pedestrians stepping onto the crossing on Horton Grange Road in the city near the junction of Spencer Road on the busy Bradford outer ring road, have risked serious injury.
Drivers are breaking the law if they fail to stop for pedestrians who are at the crossing.
Exactly why the drivers' appear distracted as they approach the crossing, which is barely 100m from a speed camera and on a 30mph road, isn't clear.
The accidents appear to happen in good visibility as the camera shows, and the crossing, with its trademark Belisha beacons is visible from a long way back in both directions.
What does the law say? The Highway Code explained
Rule 79 of the Highway Code states that cyclists must not ride their bicycle across a pelican, puffin or zebra crossing.
Instead, they 'must dismount and wheel the cycle across'.
Drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians waiting to cross and give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing.
However, toucan crossings are light-controlled crossings which allow cyclists and pedestrians to share crossing space and cross at the same time.
They are push-button operated. Pedestrians and cyclists will see the green signal together. Cyclists are permitted to ride across.
Residents around Horton Grange Road have pleaded with Bradford Metropolitan Council to tear down the inadequate Belisha beacons and replace them with traffic lights – but councillors have refused to make the zebra crossing a pelican crossing.
'Someone is going to die' – said local shopkeeper Mohammad Haleem, 45, who shared the terrifying CCTV clips with MailOnline.
The latest video from last Saturday, highlighted by Jeremy Vine, has been viewed more than 70,000 times.
It has divided opinion, with some social media users blasting the cyclist for not dismounting to cross the zebra crossing, in accordance with the Highway Code, but most people squarely blaming the driver.
Although cyclists are required to dismount on the crossing, there's no question of either of the cyclists involved in these clips taking drivers by surprise by speeding onto the crossing.
Only a few days earlier, another teenage boy had an incredible escape.
Seeing that a driver had stopped on one side of the zebra crossing, he ran across, but was hit head-on by another vehicle coming in the other direction, sending him somersaulting into the air.
Amazingly, he picked himself up and began to limp away before being called over by paramedics in a passing ambulance who turned on their blue light and tended to the boy.
Police later arrested a man.
In another horrifying clip from 2018, a young woman carrying a bag is half way across the zebra and a man and a boy are crossing from the other side. Suddenly a black car, travelling at high speed, clips her and she staggers backwards and falls onto the road, apparently unconscious.
Other drivers pull over and switch their hazard lights on as passers-by call for an ambulance.
On December 22 2021 in the early evening as young man is seen more than halfway across when he notices a black van approaching at speed and tries to get out of its way, but he is struck almost full-on with the van pushing him down the road.
In a clip from August 2022, a boy on his bicycle is slowly crossing the road and one driver stops but another silver car coming from the other direction is clearly not paying attention and hits the boy at slow speed.
The driver brakes and comes to a halt with his car straddling the zebra crossing. Amazingly the boy cycles on but passers-by intervene and call him and the driver back.
Mr Haleem took a petition to Bradford Council with the evidence of horrendous driving, but nothing has been done.
We want a pelican crossing installed in place of the zebra crossing. This is a busy road and drivers need to see a red light. They should stop at a red light.
'There are schools close by and children don't understand the zebra crossing. Just because one side of the traffic stops, it doesn't mean the other side will.
'We fitted the CCTV to try and prove how bad the problem is, but the council don't seem to be bothered, they are inept.
'The police have told us that it looks like someone is going to have to die before anything is done. The situation is really bad for the young and old.'
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