COUNCIL bosses have promised improvements to a road on which an 11-year-old girl was killed.

Siobhan Wilcock died when she was hit by a Land Rover Discovery after running out between parked cars on Bolton Road, Abbey Village. She died from multiple injuries sustained in the accident on July 22.

Now, after a long campaign by villagers and councillors, safety measures such as traffic calming humps and a zebra crossing will be improved.

Eye witnesses told an inquest at Preston that Siobhan, who lived at Higher Bank Street, Withnell, had run into the road.

Sadji Bhola, of Corwen Close, Blackburn, was driving in the direction of Bolton when he saw Siobhan run into the road, from between parked vehicles.

He said: "As far as I can remember she was looking straight ahead. She crossed the road quite quickly. I had sufficient room, but I had to brake." The driver involved in the collision was Russell Craig, from Warrington. No proceedings are being taken against him.

He told police he had been travelling around 30mph. Two witnesses, one of them an 11-year-old child, claimed that he was travelling at excessive speed.

Mr Craig told police: "I just saw a black shadow in the corner of my eye. I just felt a big thud. I had not got a clue what I had hit."

He added: "Something shot out very fast from the right hand side of the road."

His girlfriend, Sandra Taylor, who was a passenger, said she saw Siobhan on the very edge of the kerb.

"She just seemed to shoot out," she said.

Accident investigation officer PC John Sutcliffe, said the collision had been glancing blow on the corner of the vehicle. He said the young girl may have been quite difficult to see if she had been stood between two cars.

Coroner Howard McCann, recording a verdict of accidental death, said: "It was a tragic accident."