A woman injured in September when a car knocked her off her bike has appealed for local drivers to take better care, after almost getting struck again, once more on the streets of Hamilton.

“People have got to slow down,” said Safiyah Talbot, a 32-year-old single mother with a 12-year-old son, Michael.

“We have people that are not thinking. This lady was just speeding — people choose not to care. My son and I are very close. He needs me.”

Ms Talbot said she had been using the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Parliament and Reid Street last Thursday when a car slowed down for her.

“I had the right of way. She was allowing me to walk across. Then she started driving right up on me. It was just like her mind went somewhere else.”

Summing up the Island’s problem as “speeding, speeding, speeding”, she added: “I got on the road in 1999. I’ve never had a lot of experiences like this. I came back on the road in 2009. I really noticed the difference.

“We have a lot of children in town right now and we’ve got Christmas coming up. This is crazy — I had my nephew tell me another car almost knocked him down. Everybody wants to be positive, but if we don’t admit to things that are wrong, we’re not going to fix it.” Calling on police to be “more active, more vigilant”, Ms Talbot said she had spoken up to bring context to road safety.

“My son is my world — he is number one to me,” she said. “People need to see who they are hurting. Just think of what you are doing, and know the effect it can have on a lot of lives.”