VILLAGERS are pushing ahead with their campaign to reduce speeding in Much Birch after a 70-year-old woman was the victim of a hit and run in Tump Lane.

Doreen Joseph was walking to post a letter from her home in Tump Lane at 7.15pm last Friday on the pavement when a stolen Land Rover hit her after it lost control.

The vehicle hit a telegraph pole before knocking Mrs Joseph into the driveway of a house. She was taken to hospital and sustained bruising.

Mrs Joseph said: “I was stood there and I could see it coming straight for me. It was horrible.

“If that telegraph pole hadn't been there I would be dead.”

Police said they were called to reports of a collision between a pedestrian and a stolen blue Land Rover Defender.

The offenders left the Land Rover and then drove towards Wormelow in a black vehicle.

Doreen's husband, Eric, said they have been campaigning for better road safety in the village for 25 years and hopes the latest incident will highlight the need for speed restrictions, through lowering the speed limit or by installing chicanes.

He said there are regular close shaves with cars driving too close and too fast next to pedestrians, who are forced to walk along the edge of the road as there are only three sections of pavement.

Mr Joseph, 73, said: “Now perhaps after all the campaigning we may get something done to stop this madness of Tump Lane."

He said lorries which are too big for the lane regularly use the road as a rat run.

Tump Lane resident Keith James said a planning application for affordable homes was recently rejected at an appeal by a judge who cited "no safe route to school" as the principle objection.

Davina Pratt, who has three children, said: “It is frightening. We walk to school every morning. Many times I have been brushed by wing mirrors.

“It is a freak accident but it is an accident that we have just been waiting to happen.”

Balfour Beatty Living Places, on behalf of Herefordshire Council, said there have been two requests for restrictions on the road, which are in a ranking system with other jobs in the county.

A request for a weight restriction is ranked at 18, with an estimated start date in the next financial year.

A request for a speed limit reduction from 40mph to 30mph is ranked at 63 with an estimated start date of the financial year 2019/2020.