Council urges safety at the school gate

It’s the start of the school year, and like every year hundreds of children will be dropped off and picked up from school in a car. The result of this is congestion around school gates, every day, all year.

Schools and residents are struggling with this daily. The number of vehicles around schools is increasing around Wellington.

“The reality is you are getting many parents trying to get as close as possible to the school entrance in a ten minute time span twice a day,” says Emma Titcombe, Transport Safety Education Officer at Wellington City Council. “It’s incredibly dangerous to have that mix of small children and cars, children are trying to find their parents, and cross the road while parents are trying to park or turn their vehicles around in overcrowded streets.”

Wellington City Council is encouraging parents and caregivers to walk with their children to school or park further away and walk to the school gate. Many schools also have Walking School buses which allow children to walk to school under the supervision of adults. These measures help children to get more physical activity and to arrive at school awake and alert and also eases congestion at peak times.

In conjunction with this the police are running a “Speed Kills Kids” campaign. The aim is to lower speeds around schools and allow only a 4 kilometre an hour ‘tolerance’ within a 250 metre radius of schools and kindergartens. This will be enforced between the hours of 7.30am and 6pm.

For more information call Wellington City Council on 499 4444.

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