'My daughter's hit-and-run shattered our family'

"The things we saw that day will stay with me forever. They haunt me."

When Sarah answered her front door on a sunny spring day in May 2023 and someone told her that her daughter had been hit by a car, she said she went into shock and closed the door in their face.

"It was like I shut down and didn't think it was real," she said, recalling how she then raced to find Caitlin.

Her daughter, then aged 13, was walking home in Erdington, Birmingham, when she was hit by a car travelling at more than twice the 30mph speed limit. She was so badly hurt that she had to relearn how to walk and talk and lost the sight in one eye.

WARNING: This story contains a photo showing the aftermath of hospital surgery

Sarah said she felt there was still speeding every day on Holly Lane and she has launched a petition calling for the city council to put in more safety measures.

"You feel like something is going to happen any minute and I just don't want it to happen to anybody else," she added.

A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said the Holly Lane crash was a "horrifying incident" and it was committed to making its roads safer.

The day she was hit by the car, Caitlin was wearing her favourite football shirt and hanging out with friends who were excited about the start of the May half term.

She was knocked down while walking home at about 17:20 BST and one of her friends ran to her family's house to get help.

"There was just a sea of police cars, ambulances," Sarah said.

Caitlin had several fractures to her skull and a serious brain injury that caused her brain to swell.

She also had several fractures to her pelvis and two broken collarbones.

Due to the brain injury, her left eye began to swell and surgery to try to tackle it was unsuccessful, leaving her unable to see with that eye.

A man was jailed for three years this month over Caitlin's hit-and-run.

West Midlands Police said the driver was travelling at speeds of 64-67 mph at the time.

Nineteen people were killed and 417 people seriously injured in crashes on Birmingham's roads in 2023, according to the latest figures from Agilysis, a road safety consultancy that provides police data to councils.

The city council said its Road Harm Reduction Strategy, adopted in March, aimed "to eliminate deaths and serious injury as quickly as possible" and £10m was put towards delivering an action plan on the issue.

A spokesperson added that Sarah's petition would be presented to the authority and would get a formal response.

Sarah is campaigning for speed bumps on Holly Lane, which she said currently had speed cushions that she felt were less effective, and a zebra crossing near Orphanage Road.

She added her nine-year-old son "winces" when he hears speeding cars outside and the whole family is on "tenterhooks" fearing another crash.

Caitlin spent two months in hospital and came home needing to use a wheelchair. She spent months learning again how to walk, talk and eat.

"Caitlin is the most resilient and determined girl I've ever met," said Sarah, 38, who left her job as a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school to be her daughter's carer.

The 15-year-old has returned to school and is studying for her GCSEs but cannot walk for more than 20 minutes without discomfort and is likely to suffer from fatigue for the rest of her life due to her brain injury.

"She'll go to school and then she comes home and just sleeps," her mum said.

Caitlin is also now dropped off and picked up whenever she goes out.

"I don't trust our streets anymore...and she feels the same," Sarah added.

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