Parents fear children could be seriously hurt or even killed if action is not taken to improve safety at a school entrance.

More than 250 parents and people who live near St Francis Primary School, in Horspath Road, Cowley, Oxford, have signed a petition demanding action to deal with parking problems in the area.

The campaigners claim crossing the road is dangerous and fear a serious accident will happen. Karen Cherry, of Normandy Crescent, said her seven-year-old daughter Ellie had been knocked down on the access road by a reversing driver.

She said: "We were coming out of the school and we had crossed over the road. A car parked where it should not be, started reversing and hit Ellie.

"She was fine, if a little bit shaken, but something needs to be done.

"I am frightened, not just for my children, but for somebody else's child, that they will come out of the school gates and a car will reverse and knock them to the ground and they'll hit their head and that will be it.

"I only live a few minutes away, so I walk, but even if I lived further I would never drive there because it's so dangerous."

School governors vice-chairman Alan Harper appealed to Oxford City Council's Cowley area committee to back the appeal.

He said: "We've had many problems over many years and we want some action taken before somebody gets seriously injured or even killed. Already this year there have been a couple of incidents, where a child has been hit by a car and a very near miss - and that's just a couple we know of, there may be more."

Mr Harper said the road outside the school was very narrow with a sharp bend.

Erratic, and sometimes illegal, parking by parents dropping off their children made it difficult for pedestrians to see oncoming traffic.

Nearly 100 parents responded to a questionnaire sent out by the governors about parking and traffic problems outside the school.

Nearly three quarters wanted parking controlled, either by double yellow lines or bollards along the pavement edges, 85 per cent were in favour of a one-way system, and 82 per cent wanted police and warden visits.

Mr Harper, who has two children at the school and a third who now attends Oxford School, said: "As part of our healthy and eco-friendly schemes we produced a school travel plan to encourage people to use public transport, cycle or walk to school but at the moment it's not safe for children to cross the road.

"We believe the slip road to the school should be made one-way and parking should be banned on the school site."