A mother has issued a desperate plea for safer roads after her 12-year-old daughter was left severely injured in a hit-and-run incident in Kennington. Farhia Mohammed described the terrifying moment she saw her daughter Aaishah struck by a speeding car in January last year.
A Mother's Trauma
"I saw blood everywhere," Ms Mohammed recalled. The family lives on the Ethelred estate, where she believes cars should not be travelling at high speed. Aaishah, then 12, was walking home from school with her eight-year-old sister and had turned onto Black Prince Road to go to football practice when a grey car came speeding around the corner.
"The car drove right into her," Ms Mohammed said. "She was thrown to the ground sideways and hit her face on the bonnet as she fell." The driver failed to stop, leaving the young girl bleeding from the mouth with broken teeth. Ms Mohammed believes her daughter was 'nearly killed' during the traumatic event.
Lasting Injuries and Recovery
The physical and psychological impact on Aaishah, now 14, has been profound. She required emergency dental surgery, resulting in a prosthetic tooth. She also needed 24 stitches in her gum and 22 in her chin.
"To this day she has been traumatised, as we all are, and still has a loss of sensation in her knee nearly two years later," her mother shared. The surgery was described as traumatic, and Aaishah was off school for several weeks, falling behind in her studies. The incident has made Ms Mohammed fearful of letting her daughters go out alone.
The Campaign for Safer School Runs
The family's story emerges as new data reveals the scale of the problem on London's roads. Research by Solve the School Run shows that, on average, 443 children are injured on their way to and from school in London each year. This figure is equivalent to an entire primary school's worth of pupils.
Tragically, 16 percent of these children are seriously or fatally injured. Over the past three years, a total of 6,181 children suffered injuries on London's roads, with 1,006 of those being killed or seriously injured. Of these, 1,328 occurred during the school run.
In response, campaign groups Solve the School Run and Clean Cities are calling for all London councillors to commit to a series of safety measures in the upcoming local elections. Their proposals include closing streets around schools at drop-off and pick-up times and implementing measures to discourage driving and the use of dangerous SUVs.
London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, commented: "Every death and injury on London’s roads is a tragedy, and especially when it involves a child. The Mayor, TfL and London Boroughs are committed to eliminating deaths and serious injuries on the roads."
He highlighted investments in safety, noting that London now has over 800 school streets, a cycle network exceeding 400km, and ongoing transformations of dangerous junctions and pedestrian crossings across the capital.
