ANOTHER child was knocked down on Gargrave Road this week. This busy stretch is an absolute nightmare for motorists as hundreds of pupils crowd narrow pavements and double decker buses queue up to ferry children home.

Yet our inquiries reveal a degree of what some might see as complacency.

Schools did not wish to comment on the issue, road safety officers have no plans to take action and the police have no authority to demand changes.

It must surely be time to take more drastic steps than burying the incident into a small paragraph in this week's Herald and carrying on as normal.

Mercifully there have been no fatalities, but no matter what statistics might show, this is an accident black spot which calls for more drastic action. Discussing the accident in the office, one of our reporters displayed a scar, the result of a collision with a cyclist on Gargrave Road some years ago. When we referred to a more recent accident the response was: "That would have been my friend".

There are two solutions, both drastic: use the town's bus station to pick up and drop off pupils or simply close the road to all traffic except school buses for the 20 minutes of mayhem. Or will nothing be done be the easier option?