The family of a teenager who could have been killed or crippled when he was hit by a car on a zebra crossing don’t want anyone else to suffer like they have.

Leon and Clarisse Grother, who live in Grange Park, have worked with West Swindon parish councillor Trish Phillpott to get hundreds of signatures calling for the crossing on Hay Lane to be made safer.

Their son Dylan, now 17, was seriously injured when he was hit by a car while using the crossing nearly three year ago. He was walking to catch a bus to school in Royal Wootton Bassett.

He suffered a broken back, a broken foot and ankle and broken nose. It kept him off school for three months and he is still undergoing physiotherapy – but the collision has had even more lasting effects.

Dylan said: “I wanted to be an RAF pilot but I can’t do that now, I’ve spoken to the RAF and they won’t let me because my back isn’t stable enough.

“I was waiting to cross the road at the crossing and the car to my right had stopped, and I started crossing. The car coming from the left just carried on and hit me.”

The promising sportsman’s rugby career has also been cut short.

Dylan was at Euclid Street to present mayor Kevin Parry with a petition with hundreds of signatures asking for the road to be made safer around the crossing.

The petition calls for the road to be made a 20mph zone near the crossing, for a speed hump the entire width of the road to be installed at or near the crossing, and for more signs to be put up to make sure drivers know people will be crossing.

Dylan’s dad Leon said: “It was a terrible collision. He could easily have been killed or put into a wheelchair for life – it was a just a matter of inches with his injuries."

Coun Philpott has helped the family collect signatures.

She said: “We’ve got nearly 500 signatures on the paper version, and another councillor Umar Ali set up an online petition with about another 400 signatures.

“The crossing is dangerous, it’s on the brow of an incline from one direction and drivers find it hard to see, and residents are always talking about hearing the screech of brakes from cars on the road.

“The crossing is very well used, people use it to get to the primary school in one direction and come from the housing estate to go to Lydiard Park Academy in the other.”

The petition will be discussed by councillors at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, starting at 7pm.