THE Wirral Coroner will recommend new safety measures for Hoylake Road, Moreton, following the death of a three-year-old boy.

Nathan Bazeley died from multiple injuries at Alder Hey Hospital in July last year after being in collision with a Ford Escort car on the road near the junction with Carr Lane.

Witnesses told an inquest into his death that little Nathan had run from a passageway between houses and straight across the road without looking. He had previously been playing in his garden with his 12-year-old aunt and followed some of her friends out of the garden. When the friends crossed to a bus stop, Nathan ran across the road to join them, despite their best efforts to make him stop.

Nick Lauro, from Saughall Massie, who was driving past, said: "I saw the little boy at the side of the road dressed in shorts and t-shirt, with a sky-blue dummy in his mouth. I saw some children on the other side of the road on a grass verge making some sort of noise, some had their arms out as if pushing someone away."

The driver of the car involved in the collision, Horace Stuart, of Garden Hey Road, Moreton, said: "A boy of about 13 ran towards me waving his arms about. I took my foot off the throttle and covered the brake unsure if he was going to run in front of me. When he stopped running, I thought the danger was over and accelerated, then the little boy ran out from the right and I felt a bump as we hit him."

Accident investigation expert, PC James Keenan, looked into the accident. He had three recommendations to improve the safety of pedestrians in the area.

PC Keenan suggested that trees around a pedestrian passageway be removed to improve visibility; he also suggested that pedestrian guard rails be put up and that the 40 mph zone should start away from the built-up area.

The Wirral Coroner, Christopher Johnson, said: "It is my intention to bring these matters to the attention of Wirral Borough Council's Road Traffic Department."

Mr Johnson recorded a verdict of accidental death saying: "I am satisfied Mr Stuart was driving within the speed limit and in a proper manner."

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