Police have ticketed more than 300 drivers speeding in school zones in the five days since children have returned to school in the Western Bay of Plenty.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion says 300 tickets were issued to speeding drivers in the four days last week, and 12 on Tuesday outside Greenpark School in Greerton.
'My concern is the message may not be getting through,” says Ian.
'People need to take extreme care.”
Most of the speeding drivers are locals, says Ian, so saying they don't know where the clearly marked schools zones are is no excuse.
'The signage is very clear in and around schools zones,” says Ian.
'If you don't see them you are not concentrating on your driving.”
In addition to the speeding around schools there are also issues with parking, the use of drop-off pick-up zones, says Ian.
'Really it just surprises me that parents can't set the example that they need to set around schools.
'To be fair this is only a small percentage of the drivers, parents, caregivers or people dropping-off children to school, but they need to be considerate.
'It doesn't take too many people double parking or parking on double yellow lines or parking too close to a pedestrian crossing to really congest the area and make it difficult for everybody.
'People picking-up and dropping-off children need to be considerate and also parking legally. And set a good example for the kids and in doing that they make the environment so much safer.”
The back to school campaign, ‘Speed Kills Kids', this year also includes kindergartens, play centres, pre-schools and Kohanga Reo facilities.
Drivers travelling at more than 54km/h within 250 metres of a school boundary will be issued with a speeding ticket – unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so.
Drivers travelling over 50km/h and below 54km/h will be stopped and warned.
Nationally, since 2002, more than 900 child pedestrians have been struck by motor vehicles, killed or injured during school terms.
The most vulnerable age group is between 11 and 15 years, with this group making up 44 per cent of child casualties aged 5-18 years.
3 comments
Posted on 08-02-2012 14:04 | By charob
How about ticketing the illegal parking . The parents that stop to drop there kids off. They think they can park anywhere. Ideal solution,Park in the side roads and walk with your children. or drop them off a little earlier ........ it makes cameron road so dangerous when people park on yellow lines or over drive ways...................
STOP KNEEJERKING
Posted on 08-02-2012 19:36 | By Hebegeebies
I again ask Sergeant Campion to spell out how many accidents involving school children in the vicinity of schools have been caused by speeding motorists in past 5 years in Western Bay.If he can't or won't answer that simple question we must assume it is none and therefore there is no real problem . Don't waste our time and resources on this nonsense. As for Greenpark School only problem are the parents and children as have no need to cross to Racecourse side . Speed limit should be 60kph still !!!
Parents are the problem!
Posted on 09-02-2012 23:17 | By Hannahbell
It is not hard to park up and WALK to collect your child. It is not hard to pick your child up at 3:10 when the traffic is a little bit less congested. If the child has working legs, they can walk! The crossing is patrolled with confident children and adult supervision. Cameron Road is made more dangerous by PARENTS who choose to park on the yellow lines and cycle lane, simply because they are too lazy to park somewhere else and walk to collect their kids. Raising the speed limit back to 60kph is plain stupid.
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