Colchester: Cassie's Law Petition Growing

1st February 2012, 06:00

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• Cassie's Law - E-petitions

The mother of a teenager, who died when she was hit by a car in Colchester last year, is calling for police to be given special powers to temporarily suspend the driving licenses of unfit motorists.

Cassie McCord was killed on February 7th when 87-year-old Colin Horsfall mounted the pavement and collided with the 16-year-old.

Just three days before the accident it emerged that Mr Horsfall had failed an eye test by police when he also lost control of his car.

Mother, Jackie McCord, has been telling Heart the whole ordeal could have been avoided if the laws were different: "He (Colin Horsfall) asked the police specifically 'can I drive?' and they had to say yes because there was nothing they could do. Had they been able to say 'no you can't' he wouldn't have driven."

"Definitly the law needs to be changed to give police powers just to temporarily suspend a drivers licence for anybody who they feel is unfit to drive. Age isn't the issue here it's just about whether they are capable of driving."

Jackie, along with Cassie's friend Charlotte Mitchell, have created a petition asking for the law to be changed.

So far it's received around 15,000 signatures - it needs a total of 100,000 to be debated in Parliament.