A campaigner for a pedestrian crossing on a busy road where a university student was killed still believes the safety measure is needed – despite it being rejected by the county council.

University of Kent architecture student Bruce Buckland called for the crossing in St Stephen’s Hill following the death of Bihari Payagala, 20, in 2012.

An inquest later concluded her death was an accident after hearing she was wearing headphones and probably distracted by music when she stepped off the pavement into the path of a car.

The coroner also rejected calls for a crossing saying the evidence “did not justify it”.

Mr Buckland, who is in the final year of his architecture studies, set up an e-petition calling for a crossing and gained 1,100 signatures.

The county council has now completed its investigation into the request and the member responsible for transport, Cllr David Brazier, responded in a letter to Mr Buckland this week.

He said: “The loss of a life in a road crash is clearly a tragedy and something the county council works hard to prevent.

“The question as to whether the installation of a pedestrian crossing on St Stephen’s Hill could have prevented the death, or prevent similar future tragedies, was discussed at length during the inquest.

“It was explained that the installation of a pedestrian crossing does not necessarily make crossing the road statistically safer.

“Our investigations into whether a crossing would improve safety along St Stephen’s Hill showed that the current risk of a personal injury crash resulting from crossing the road is currently very low when taking into account the number of pedestrians crossing the road, vehicles using the road and the relative infrequency of crashes resulting in injury to pedestrians on St Stephen’s Hill.

"I hope it doesn’t take another death before a crossing is deemed necessary" - Bruce Buckland

“Indeed, from a statistical point of view, the installation of a crossing could lead to more crashes occurring.

“While I deeply sympathise with the concerns raised by all those who signed the petition, and my thoughts are with the family and friends following this tragedy, I am afraid that I cannot currently support the installation of a pedestrian crossing.”

But Mr Buckland believes the crossing is still necessary.

He said: “I know KCC has statistical criteria for these kind of things, but I use the road a lot and see the number of students crossing and the volume of traffic. To my mind it would make it safer and I hope it doesn’t take another death before a crossing is deemed necessary.”