A SCHOOLGIRL who was injured by a car as she walked home has made a plea from her hospital bed for a pedestrian crossing.

Sumika Purchase, 11, of Mill Road, Colchester, smiled bravely through her pain at the town’s general hospital yesterday where she is recovering after the incident on Monday.

Sumika, who has just begun her first term at the Gilberd School, in High Woods, was crossing Brinkley Grove Road, Mile End, when she was in collision with a Mercedes at about 3.30pm.

She, along with her parents, councillors and her headteacher, have pleaded for Essex County Council to put a zebra crossing there. Sumika said: “My friend went down Gavin Way, but I kept walking up Brinkley Grove Road.

“When I was about to cross it didn’t look like there were any cars coming. I went across the road and two or three seconds later a car hit me. I was screaming.”

The driver, a 51-year-old woman from Wivenhoe, stopped at the scene. Hospital medics confirmed Sumika had broken her leg in two places. She is expected to remain there until the weekend.

Sumika, a keen netball player and swimmer, said the county council should put in a zebra crossing at the accident scene.

The road is used by many pupils, who get to the secondary school through a gate leading into its field.

Sumika said: There should be a crossing opposite the field. That’s the main place people go. It is like a little short-cut.”

Her dad Dave, 48, said: “Thumbs up to them for putting a pedestrian crossing in Mill Road, but the job’s half done – now put one in Brinkley Grove Road.”

Ward councillor Gerard Oxford said of the accident: “We have been fearing something like this would happen. For years we have been trying to get a pedestrian crossing there.

“There have been a number of near-misses recently and I have raised it through the borough council’s highways panel. But I got a response from the chair saying the county council is not funding anything. It will fund a traveller site, but doesn’t fund highways safety issues.”

Gilberd School headteacher Linda Exley said: “We have hundreds of students crossing that road every day. Anything that can be done to get a crossing there, we support. We need our children to be safe.”

PC Roger Manser, of Stanway traffic police, appealed for witnesses to call 101. No action is being taken against the driver. Essex County Council was unavailable for comment.