CAMPAIGNING mother Jackie Rason has called for clinicians to do more to stop deaths on the road.

Jackie’s daughter Cassie McCord was killed by pensioner Colin Horsfall who drove on to the pavement in Head Street, Colchester.

Three days earlier police officers had spent two hours trying to persuade Mr Horsfall, who was 87, to give up his driving licence. He had failed an eye test after crashing into the exit of the petrol station at Tesco in Highwoods, Colchester.

Mr Horsfall refused, however, and while the DVLA processed the police’s application to revoke his licence, he went on to kill Cassie, who was 16 and a student at Colchester Sixth Form College.

As a result of Jackie’s determined campaign, which was supported by the Gazette and by former Colchester MP, Sir Bob Russell, the Government introduced Cassie’s Law which gave police fast-track powers to ask the DVLA to revoke a driver’s licence immediately where it was felt they were unsafe to drive.

Hundreds of licences have been seized under Cassie’s Law which has been credited with saving hundreds of lives.

But Jackie says more still needs to be done.

She was speaking after John Place was jailed for four years after he killed three-year-old Poppy-Arabella Clarke in Sutton Coldfield.

Place, 72, had been told three weeks before the collision to stop driving by two optometrists after falling far below the required eyesight standards set by the DVLA even when he was wearing glasses.

He admitted charges of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving at Birmingham Crown Court.

Jackie said she felt sad another family had had to go through the same devastating loss as hers and called for more stringent action to be taken.

She said: “It is an absolute replica of when Cassie died.

“I am so upset we still need measures introduced six years on.

“I think back to when we lost Cassie and how devastated we were as a family.

“Another family is going through that same trauma and it makes me cross nothing has changed.

“There have been no changes in any procedure to stop people who fail an eyesight test from driving.

“If someone fails an eyesight test, like in this case, the clinician needs to contact the DVLA immediately and the DVLA should have powers to act on it.

“It is not a question of age nor prejudice against elderly drivers. It is simply no-one who fails a sight test should be driving be they aged 70 or 20.

“It is simply an issue of safety on the roads and no-one else dying unnecessarily.”

Jackie urged politicians to step up to the plate and change the law to allow the DVLA to revoke driving licences if concerns are raised by doctors or opticians.

She said: “Ministers are not listening. They are not reading the newspapers and they are not in touch with what is going on.

“People who continue to drive when they are not safe are selfish and we cannot allow this to carry on.”