Campaigners stage protest for safer roads in Yardley

Hundreds of people have staged a protest on a busy road in Birmingham to demand more road safety measures.

Campaigners gathered on the A45 Coventry Road in Yardley on Sunday to urge motorists to stop speeding.

It followed the death of 12-year-old Azaan Khan who was hit by a car while crossing the road on his bike on 8 June.

Better Streets for Birmingham, which organised the event, said it had gathered to say "enough is enough".

"We travelled from all over Birmingham to stand shoulder to shoulder at the spot where [Azaan] was killed," the group said in a post on Twitter.

It added it wanted to "remember this beautiful life cut short and [to] come together to demand the changes that will give the Azaans of tomorrow the future they deserve".

Protesters described the road as "lawless", with one man stating that "racing seems to be the norm".

The group said it was "continuing to press for changes" from Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police.

Mat MacDonald, co-chair, said the group had carried out a spot check of motorists who had been using their phones while driving on the road.

"In the space of an hour at school closing time we found 38 drivers, so that's more than one every 2 minutes," he said.

A friend of Azaan told the BBC: "It's just very sad, just to see your own best friend go, and he was very young as well. Personally I think we should stop speeding [and] using our phones."

Sunday's event followed a demonstration last month in Kings Heath, Birmingham, where hundreds of people gathered to call for safer streets after a boy and woman were seriously injured on a pedestrian crossing.

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