SADDENED tiny tots have joined a road safety battle following the tragic death of a three-year-old playmate.

Chloe Rigby (pictured) died after a road accident near her home on Tyldesley's Shakerley estate. Her funeral was on Tuesday afternoon

Now tearful Shakerley playgroup members are backing the fight for traffic calming measures on the estate roads.

"It is so sad," said community centre and playgroup volunteer Evelynne Smith.

"Chloe enjoyed coming to playschool with her brother. Everyone is upset and we support any schemes which would help prevent further tragedies."

Chloe and her mum, Julie, were heading home to Devon Road across Lancaster Avenue when tragedy struck.

Her death has brought renewed calls for traffic calming measures on the estate.

Former Lancaster Avenue resident Susan Edwards said she asked for speed humps in the road five years ago when her daughter, Sarah, was knocked down.

Little Chloe's devastated grandmother, Eileen May, said something had to be done to calm traffic in the road.

Mrs May, 46, said she always feared a child would be killed but never imagined it would be her own granddaughter.

She said: "Something has got to be done about this road now."

A spokesman for Wigan Council said Wigan had a policy of not using speed humps "mainly because they are fairly actively opposed by the emergency services" and by the operators of public transport.

He said there were other ways of calming traffic and the council's engineers were looking "very closely" at Lancaster Avenue to decide if something should be done to slow traffic down.

He added that Lancaster Avenue had not "previously" had a sufficiently high enough level of accidents to look at traffic calming".

Councillor Bill Smith, of Crawford Avenue, has pledged to support their fight.

He said: "I will be backing anything which could prevent another tragic accident."

Cllr Smith has been in touch with the council's engineers to discuss what could be done.

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