Crossing 'is still a danger' to public

ANN Kerridge's grandson Jake Healey (9), grand-daughter Hollie Healey (10) and daughter Sharon Kerridge visit the spot to leave flowers

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A GRIEVING daughter who lost her mother after she was knocked down by a bus 10 years ago still has concerns about the crossings at Cheapside station.

Ann Kerridge (56) was killed after she was knocked to the ground by a single-deck First bus as she used the Cheapside station in January, 2007.

Her daughter Sharon Kerridge, grandson Jack Healey (9) and grand-daughter Hollie Healey (10) visited the spot on Tuesday evening to mark the 10th anniversary.

Ann was in Oldham with her other daughter, Karen Walker, when the accident happened.

The pair were heading to the civic centre, but Ann told Karen to go ahead, and she would catch up.

Karen called her mum seven times on her mobile and when she came out of the civic centre to look for her the bus was still there, but Ann had been taken away in an ambulance.

Blocking

Oldham coroner Simon Nelson attributed the death to a blind spot blocking the bus driver's sight and the station layout.

Following her mother's death, Sharon campaigned to make the pedestrian crossings around the bus station safer which saw two high-risk crossings.

Sharon, who says the pain of the tragic incident has not subsided for her or her family, still has concerns about the bus station.

She said: "It broke my heart, it still affects me and Karen to this day and it is just a big loss that Karen never got to meet her.

"I'd like them to shut that top crossing. If the bottom one is dangerous, then that one is as well.

"Vehicles can't always stop. At the end of the day it is going to take a child's life and someone else will feel the pain even worse because it is a child. Shut the top one or put lights there.

"I just want to make it safer so nobody goes through what we have had to go through."

She said: "I still suffer quite bad with it, I don't really go out much, it still hurts me and I still think about it.

"It felt like I had been abandoned, I just thought I can't cope any longer and it just pulled me apart."

Ann, who would have been 57 a month later, also left behind grand-daughter Amy Earnshaw, now 19, described by Sharon as the apple of her mother's eye, and her ex-husband Brian Walker, who she remained very close with. Brian sadly died that same year in August from a heart attack.

Sharon added: "Even though they were divorced they were still very close, he used to take her out shopping every day and they would see each other.

"He died from a broken heart.

"I hope everybody watches when they cross the road because you don't know what is coming around the corner."