A YOUNG mother has pleaded with drivers in Abingdon to take more care after her six-year-old daughter was hit by a car while cycling across a pedestrian crossing.

Mother-of-two Emma Knight, of Kennet Road, watched in horror as her daughter Ellie was flung into the air as she crossed Oxford Road, near Alexander Close.

Ms Knight, who was just steps behind with her four-year-old son Daniel, said she was powerless to help when the car struck her pink bike.

Ellie’s accident happened just days after the death of 11-year-old Ty-Ree Partridge, who was killed in a collision with a van in Copenhagen Drive, in Abingdon, on July 1.

Nine months earlier, Ty-Ree’s fellow Larkmead pupil Sarah Waterhouse, 17, died in a cycle accident in Colwell Drive.

Luckily, Ellie, a pupil at Long Furlong Primary School, escaped with nothing more than a few bruises and scratches, but Ms Knight said she has not been able to get the incident out of her head since it happened.

She said: “I know I have got to move on, but I keep thinking about it again and again.

“It was just not being able to do anything about it that I can’t get over.

“There have been too many incidents like this recently.

“She is a toughie and luckily she got straight up, but I’m always thinking about what could have happened.”

The 20-year-old driver of the car involved in the incident was reported to police, and they instructed him to go on a young drivers’ course.

Thames Valley Police spokes-man David Paull said: “The officer investigated the incident and concluded that he had not been speeding and the cause was down to a momentary lapse of concentration.

“In cases where injuries are minor, it’s our policy to send drivers on an education scheme.

“This is because we feel that drivers will benefit more from learning where they went wrong and how they can improve their driving, than they would from facing prosecution.

“If they offend again within three years, then we will prosecute.”

But Ms Knight, 34, claimed: “I think that, because she wasn’t hurt, the police aren’t taking it as seriously.

“The light was red.

“I know people will say cyclists don’t look where they are going, but Ellie knows not to cross the road unless the green man is showing.

“I think when you’re approaching a crossing it should be a matter of expecting the unexpected, but people are in such a rush everywhere.

“I just hope the driver has learned from his mistake.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk