PUB customers and neighbours held up busy traffic for nearly half-an-hour in their campaign to move a pedestrian crossing where two boys were injured., writes michael Hambleton.

Martyn Coxhead, nine, is still in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital with a broken leg and other injuries after being hit by a van outside the Wheatsheaf pub, Wantage, Road, Didcot, a week ago.

Thanks to Martyn's bravery, his younger brother David, eight, escaped with cuts and bruises when the older boy pushed him clear.

Their dad Steve Coxhead is licensee. He said both lads were lucky to be alive. The boys had been crossing the road to buy doughnuts at the BP garage shop when the accident happened.

Police are investigating the accident. They understand a car travelling west had already stopped to allow the boys across the road, when Martyn was hit by a van travelling east towards the town centre.

The van driver was unhurt, although it is understood he collapsed from shock moments later.

David - along with his eldest brother Michael, 12, dad Steve, 43, and mum Maggie, 40, led the protest aimed at getting the zebra crossing moved to a safer location at least 75 yards away. They want it replaced with a manually-operated pelican crossing, and a speed camera installed or other measures to reduce the speed of drivers along the road where there is a 30mph speed limit.

Protesters caused tailbacks of more than a mile when they filed back and forth across the zebra crossing - until police arrived and Pc Jason Shillam warned they risked arrest if they continued to block traffic. But Mr Coxhead said: "We will repeat our action on other days until something is done. I don't mind being arrested. It is better than someone being killed. The crossing is in a ridiculous place." Campaigners, who have collected more than 1,000 signatures demanding action, want improved signing for drivers warning of the pedestrian crossing which is used daily by hundreds of pupils attending nearby Didcot Girls' School.

Story date: Tuesday 08 February

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