A GRIEVING brother whose teenage sister died after being struck by a car is appealing to residents to support a campaign to give the police power to temporarily suspend driving licences of motorists they feel are unfit to drive.

Former Sandringham School pupil Cassie McCord, 16, was fatally injured in the collision, where she was hit by a car that mounted a footpath and struck her and two other pedestrians as they walked along a pavement in Colchester, Essex, in February this year.

Cassie was put on a life support machine after the accident and her family agreed to donate her organs before it was switched off in line with her wishes.

It later emerged that the driver, 87-year-old Colin Horsfall, of Colchester, who was driving a Vauxhall at the time, had been involved in an accident at a petrol station days earlier.

Essex Police had sent details of the earlier incident to the DVLA, but were not able to remove his licence. The elderly man died in a care home three months after the fatal crash.

Cassie’s brother Sam, 20, of Drakes Drive, St Albans, said that she would still be alive now if the police had had the power to withhold the driver’s licence after his first crash.

The McCord family have launched a campaign, named Cassie’s Law, to have legislation introduced whereby police can temporarily suspend the driving licence of motorists they believe are unfit to drive.

Sam, a former Beaumont School student, will be in St Albans city centre, near the Maltings, on Saturday, November 12, collecting signatures for a petition for Cassie’s Law.

More than 3,000 people have already signed the document but the McCord family are aiming to reach the 100,000 mark to force a debate in the House of Commons.

Sam said: “The petition won’t bring her back. It has been tough, but we are hoping to have this law passed to stop anyone suffering the same way we have.”

He will also take the petition to Watford, Hemel Hempstead and London Colney.

Sam and Cassie’s mum, Jackie, who moved to Colchester with her daughter several years ago, is pursuing the campaign in that town, with strong support from Colchester MP Bob Russell.

There is also an e-petition available, which can be signed at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/21244