Boy, 12, dies after bicycle hit by car in Birmingham

A 12-year-old boy has died after his bicycle was hit by a car in Birmingham.

It happened on Coventry Road, in the Yardley area, at about 18:15 BST on Thursday and the boy died at the scene.

A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and being unfit through drugs and remains in custody, police said.

Officers have appealed for anyone with information or dashcam footage of the crash to contact them.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said a pedestrian who had also been hit by a car near the scene was taken to the Heartlands Hospital with minor injuries.

The death is the third involving a cyclist in Birmingham in as many weeks and the area's cycling commissioner has called for urgent safety improvements.

Mohammed, who is from the area, told BBC News a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle as he ran to help the 12-year-old and was taken away in an ambulance. He said people did not feel safe on the streets.

"He was trying to show his support and go help him," he said.

"As a result of that he has been injured as well."

He said there had been a few recent incidents with vehicles and pedestrians on the road.

A pedestrian narrowly avoided being struck by a car that went on to into a fence on the same stretch on Tuesday.

"He lost control of the car and hit the fence," Mohammed said.

"It just shows as a community, me, myself as a 16-year-old you don't feel safe walking around these streets any more.."

West Midlands Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter, who was appointed in 2021, has called for tougher policing and extra road safety measures from Birmingham City Council after a spate of fatal crashes involving bikes.

Speaking before the latest death, he said collisions happened "with such a regularity that you could be fooled into thinking that this is normal".

"My message is that this is not normal," Mr Tranter said.

The Better Streets for Birmingham group also called for improved safety in a letter published on Twitter on Friday.

It tweeted: "The killing of a child cyclist now puts the grim statistics in our letter out of date. The situation is untenable."

In its letter, the group criticised what it described as a "delay" in delivering road safety measures.

It has also invited people to a vigil on Saturday, at the junction of Belgrave Middleway and Horton Square, where a cyclist died on 16 May.

Birmingham City Council said it hoped to have a regional road safety strategy in place by the end of the year and had a target of cutting all traffic deaths and serious injuries.

Correction: An earlier version of this article wrongly carried a picture from a previous story and this has been replaced.

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