School steps up bid for 30mph limit after crash

The sports car was travelling in excess of the 40 mph limit when it went up a 6ft bank, knocked down a fence and came to a hault at the edge of a school building last Thursday.

No-one was hurt but it has highlighted why the parish council and the school have been asking for the speed limit to be reduced to 30 mph.

Headteacher Liz Cook heard the loud bang of the car crunching into the building when it happened at 4.20pm.

She said: "I am hoping this incident, which could have had a horrendous outcome, will make everybody treat this a little bit more seriously.

"Obviously I wanted to make sure nobody was injured, but once we knew the driver was okay we were thinking about the 'what ifs?'.

"Very serious consideration needs to be given to lower the speed to 30mph."

Pupils at the school had just finished a traffic project looking at the speed of cars travelling through West Dean.

Fortunately there was only a small number of people at the school attending a parents and teachers association party at the time of the accident.

It is not the first time the school has campaigned for a lower speed limit as, back in 1978, the school was trying to get the national speed limit through the village scrapped in favour of a 40mph zone.