Parents launch cycle path campaign after six-year-old hit by cyclist in New Brighton is left with broken leg

Jun 10 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Parents launch cycle path campaign after six-year-old hit by cyclist in New Brighton is left with broken leg

COUNCILLORS are calling for a review of Wirral’s seafront cycle lanes after a hit-and-run cyclist left a six-year-old girl in a wheelchair.

The bicycle ploughed into Liberty Rose Dempsey on the promenade at New Brighton while she and sister Honor, seven, waited for dad Jamie to get a drink from their car.

The family were planning a stroll along the beach while mum Verity, who is expecting her third child this month, waited at their Wallasey home.

Mr Dempsey, 33, heard a scream and turned around to find Liberty lying on the ground in agony with her leg broken in two places.

He says the male cyclist replaced his headphones and sunglasses after the collision and rode away.

Surgeons at Arrowe Park Hospital spent three hours pinning Liberty's tibular and fibular bones back together and say she will be in a wheelchair for eight weeks, followed by months of physiotherapy to get her back on her feet.

Mr Dempsey said: “We'd been out for tea and I'd driven further up the promenade, towards the Derby Pool, so we could go for a walk. I turned back to the car to get a drink and then I heard a clatter and a scream.”

A cycle lane runs along the footpath where the accident happened last Thursday evening and Liberty's parents are now calling for the council to move it away from pedestrian walkways. They have set up a group on social networking site Facebook, “After Liberty's accident, Let's get the cycle lanes moved”.

Mr Dempsey says the cyclist was riding on the pavement and not in a designated cycle lane when his daughter was knocked down on May 28.

Wallasey councillor Paul Hayes, a member of Wirral Cycle Forum, has asked for an urgent review of cycle lane locations.

He said: “I am very concerned by what has happened to Liberty Dempsey.

New Brighton councillor Sue Taylor, said: "The onus has to be on cyclists to pay attention and be aware of pedestrians."