PEDESTRIANS are still waiting for a safer crossing over the busy A64 - nine months after a teenager died while trying to cross the dual carriageway.

The Highways Agency announced earlier this year that it intended putting up "pedestrian crossing" warning signs on the A64 near Bilbrough Top, between York and Tadcaster.

Other measures, such as a pedestrian refuge in the middle of the central reservation, were also planned.

The moves came after 17-year-old Jamie Sanders, of Northallerton, who worked at a Bilbrough Top garage, was struck by a car as he ran across the road to catch a bus to York in January. He later died of his injuries.

Inquiries by the Evening Press have established that other workers in the Bilbrough Top area are still having to cross the road in the same way to catch buses to York.

Others are having to cross the dual carriageway to get to work after getting off buses from Tadcaster.

Local Selby district councillor Brian Percival has claimed the agency promised at a private meeting in February that the work to help pedestrians would be done in the spring.

When it had not been carried out by late spring, the Evening Press was told by an agency spokeswoman that it was set to be carried out in the summer.

But, with dark winter evenings closing in, there are still no signs up, and no evidence of any work on a pedestrian refuge.

Jamie's father, Colin, said it seemed the agency had no sense of urgency, and he feared someone else might be killed trying to make the same manoeuvre as his son. "My family is still suffering and we don't want to see other families suffering in the same way," he said.

But an agency spokeswoman said the work had been delayed because of difficulties in finding the safest location for pedestrians to cross.

"We are taking another look at some of the design aspects. That is under way now."

She said the safest point might not necessarily be the one pedestrians felt was most convenient.

However, Bilbrough Parish Council chairman Sam Esler said he felt the excuse for the delay was "crazy", adding: "They have not got that far to look."

He said people from the village sometimes walked across the dual carriageway to get burgers and newspapers from Bilbrough Top, and were at risk.

Updated: 09:53 Friday, October 19, 2001