More than 3,200 people have signed a petition demanding urgent road safety measures on the Highgate street where schoolgirl Melissa Premaratne died on her way to class.
The e-petition, opened on September 24 — the day the 16-year-old was fatally injured in a collision involving a car in North Road — calls on Haringey Council to act over what organisers describe as long-standing safety concerns on a street used by hundreds of schoolchildren every day.
Melissa, a Year 12 pupil at Highgate School, was on her way to start her school day when the collision happened close to St Michael’s Primary School. Her family have described her as “a light in our lives and an amazing person” who will be missed “deeply, every single day” — a tribute to Melissa’s beautiful spirit that drew an outpouring of sympathy from across the community.
The school confirmed she was in Year 12, saying: “the loss of such a young life so full of promise and hope is deeply heartbreaking”.
Petition organisers say North Road has already been the scene of previous traffic incidents and argue that the existing safety measures are not enough for a road relied on by so many pupils and pedestrians. The petition says Melissa’s death has “shocked our community” and claims that safety warnings raised over a long period have been ignored.
The speed at which the petition has grown — more than 3,200 signatures in just over a week — underlines how deeply the tragedy has affected the area. North Road sits in a part of Highgate served by several schools, which means the same stretch of road is crossed by hundreds of children twice a day, at the very times when traffic is at its heaviest.
Top of the campaign’s list of demands is a funded school crossing patrol — a “lollipop person” — in place on North Road for the morning drop-off and the afternoon pick-up, when the street is at its busiest with children and parents.
Organisers are also asking for an urgent, independent review of road safety along North Road, leading to permanent physical changes. Signal-controlled traffic lights are named specifically, alongside more traffic-calming measures, lower speed limits and speed cameras where appropriate.
The final demand is for the council to work directly with schools, parents and residents on a long-term safety plan for the area, rather than settling for a one-off fix.
School crossing patrols — the familiar lollipop men and women — are stationed at crossing points near schools during the busiest periods of the morning and afternoon. Wearing high-visibility clothing and carrying the round stop sign, they step into the road to halt traffic while children cross. Councils decide where patrols are placed and fund the roles, and campaigns calling for new patrols are a common feature of road-safety petitions across the capital.
Traffic-calming measures, meanwhile, are physical changes to the road designed to force drivers to slow down: speed humps and speed cushions, raised crossings, narrowed carriageways, chicanes and tighter junction layouts. Lower limits — such as the 20mph zones that have spread rapidly across London in recent years — are usually backed by new signage and, in some cases, fixed or average-speed cameras.
A road safety review of the kind being demanded typically examines a street’s collision history, traffic speeds and volumes, sightlines, footway widths and existing crossing provision, before recommending where permanent changes are needed.
Responding to the campaign, Haringey’s cabinet member for transport, Cllr Gio Iozzi, said the council had been “horrified” to hear the news and offered its “deep and sincere condolences” to a family he said must be suffering unimaginable grief.
“We immediately reached out to the school to offer our support and have since visited the site,” he said. “The police are carrying out an investigation, and the council will assist them in any way we can.”
“No one should lose their life on our roads. We have commissioned an urgent traffic and safety review on the North Road and will continue to engage with parents, the school and the local community.”
Following the collision, it is understood that the driver stopped at the scene. A 68-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and has been bailed pending further enquiries.
The e-petition is scheduled to run until March 31, 2027, and can be signed through Haringey Council’s online e-petition service. Residents who want to raise road-safety concerns directly can also report problem roads to the council’s highways team, while dangerous driving should be reported to the police.
In the days after Melissa’s death, a fundraiser in her memory raised nearly £100,000, underlining the depth of feeling in Highgate and far beyond.
For the petition’s backers, the hope now is that the council’s promised review turns into visible change on North Road — and that no other family has to go through what Melissa’s has endured.
