Coroner in call to improve ring road safety measures

A CORONER is to urge Leeds City Council to investigate road safety measures on a section of ring road where a 12-yearold girl suffered fatal injures after being struck by a car.

Assistant Coroner Oliver Longstaff said he would file a report aimed at preventing future deaths after an inquest heard Hoshi Naylor was about half-a-mile away from a pedestrian crossing when she was involved in a crash with a Vauxhall Corsa.

Hoshi and 11-year-old brother, Raiden, were trying to walk across Leeds Ring Road close to the roundabout junction with the A57 Wetherby Road just before 6.30pm on January 4 last year, the inquest at Wakefield heard. Hoshi, inset, was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where she died from a traumatic brain injury a week later. West Yorkshire Police accident investigator Robert Eyre said the Corsa, which was travelling towards York Road, had an average speed just over 33mph in the 40mph zone when the collision happened.

Mr Eyre said driver Mark Eyles, who braked and swerved before hitting Hoshi, had a maximum of 1.9 seconds to react and take action, meaning he was not able to avoid the collision.

Recording a verdict of death due to a road traffic accident, Mr Longstaff said the road was “not especially well lit”.

He said he would send a report aimed at preventing future deaths to the council regarding the provision of lighting and pedestrian crossings in the area where the accident happened.

After the inquest, Hoshi’s mother Emma Settle, said: “We want a proper pedestrian crossing at that site.”