�An 18-year-old father-to-be was killed on Sunday evening at a Collier Row junction which residents had warned Havering Council was “dangerous”.

Neighbours claim the council had not acted on their calls to introduce safety measures.

Robert Stewart – who lived in the area and whose girlfriend is expecting a baby boy in four months – was pronounced dead at the scene after his Kynco Agility 125 scooter was in collision with a Chrysler Voyager, at the junction of Burland Road and Highfield Road.

Impact

The impact, at 6.30pm, was with such force that pieces of Robert’s wrecked moped were found on nearby doorsteps.

Tributes to the local teenager, who turned 18 just two weeks ago, and was studying at Havering Construction College, in Rainham, were laid at the scene from 5am the following morning.

One message read: “Always in our heart, never forgotten. Will be sadly missed by everyone. Only just 18 years old, so looking forward to being a dad. This should never have happened. Loved you forever. Gonna miss you.”

A second said: “To our darling Robert, now the brightest star in the sky. Love always, nan & grandad & the family. X x x”

Robert’s distraught dad Sean Stewart told the Recorder yesterday (Thursday): “He was a lovely, lovely boy. The whole family are devastated and miss him. Everybody who knew him is welcome to the funeral.”

The procession will leave Robert’s home at 2.30pm on February 7, going to South Essex Crematorium, in Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, at 3.30pm

Highfield Road resident Gary Allen, who is first-aid trained, gave Robert CPR before emergency services arrived.

The 46-year-old carpenter said the boy was initially alive, but sadly died soon after.

He said: “We need speed bumps to slow people down.”

There was general concern among residents about road safety in the area. Many said they had experienced their own near-misses at the junction.

Karen Island, 41, a cake decorator, said: “One of my children nearly got run over. We thought he was safe. He was only running up the road to post a letter and a car nearly hit him.”

Another neighbour Hasu Dave, 60, spoke of her daughter’s hit-and-run experience just last year.

Hasu was waving goodbye to her daughter from their front door on Highfield Road, when a speeding motorist hit her daughter’s car and drove off.

“It all happened so fast,” she said. “We didn’t see the car or number plate or anything.”

Her husband, 61-year-old accountant, Mayur Dave, said he had written numerous emails to the council, some seen by the Recorder, in the past two years, after an accident demolished his neighbour’s front fence.

In one email, dated November 2010, he called for hazard signs at the spot “to avoid dangerous accidents and chaos” but said he hadn’t received a reply.

But the council says it’s had no emails about the junction since 2006.

Cllr Barry Tebbut, cabinet member for StreetCare, said: “We always listen to concerns over road safety but there have been no other injuries caused by accidents on that road for nearly four years. This was a very sad and tragic incident.”

Neither the council nor the police could provide the Recorder with the number of minor incidents at the junction.

A 56-year-old car driver was arrested on suspicion of death by careless driving and driving while drunk. He was released on bail until February 23.

Witnesses to the incident should call Chadwell Heath Road death invesitgation unit on: 0208 597 4874