A FATHER has criticised 'deadly' parking outside his daughter's school, after she walked into a car and suffered concussion.

Tim West, from Blackbird Leys, said his seven-year-old daughter was injured outside Pegasus Primary School on the estate.

She smashed into a car parked on the pavement after turning to speak to her sister, at the end of school on Thursday last week.

Mr West said although she was distracted, the car should not have been parked in the path of schoolchildren to start with.

The 35-year-old said: "She smashed her head and we spent six hours in A&E.

"It was a double whammy - she hit the car, fell over and headbutted a wall as she fell back.

"When you have kids crossing the road and cars parking everywhere, it's a deadly situation."

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The school wrote to parents in a newsletter last Friday, urging parents to park 'respectfully'.

Staff wrote: "Many vehicles are parking on the pavement outside school at the end of the day.

"This makes it difficult to cross the road.

"At the end of school yesterday, this caused one of our children to fall and bump their head.

"Let’s work together to ensure our children’s safety comes first."

Many schools have issues with dangerous parking, and several headteachers wrote to parents separately last month to say that they would be passing photos of badly-parked cars to police.

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Father-of-five Mr West said he had contacted police and councils about the issue but they had 'passed the buck' between each other as to whose responsibility enforcement is.

He added: "I know police are understaffed and pushed to the limit, but a child has been injured and it's likely to happen again - it's a very busy road."

He said the zig-zag lines outside the school in Field Avenue, which people are prohibited from blocking, are sometimes 'full of cars'.

Mr West said some parents drive a 'ridiculously' short distance to get their children to school, along a route that could easily be walked.

He added: "There's no excuse for laziness. It's just ignorance."

Thames Valley Police's website states that local authorities are responsible for issuing fines for breaches of the Highway Code.

However, there are three exceptions when the police get involved as a crime has been committed - if someone has parked on zig-zag lines, parked dangerously or parked in a way that blocks access for emergency vehicles.