If we want something to happen then we need to be proactive in making it happen. I simply want the Government to introduce a law that slows traffic outside schools and would like to see a National School Speed Limit of 40km/h or less. Children are being maimed and killed near schools, because there is no National School Zone Speed Limit. Some schools have 20km/h whilst others in rural areas have speed limits of up to 100km/h! Something needs to be done and consistent speed limits outside schools throughout the country are the key.

For the last three years I was in contact with our former Transport Minister, Steven Joyce about this, but he wasn’t going to be the one to change that tiny area of our Roading system for children. He had many excuses, none of them of relevance to the life of a child, leaving the roads outside schools incredibly dangerous places for children. In January I sent a letter to Gerry Brownlee our new Transport Minister, putting my case, but I have had no reply. I am not surprised as he has his hands full dealing with earthquake problems. Meanwhile the clock is ticking. It will take some horrible accident for this issue to raise its public head again and that is exactly what I and many others want to avoid.

Our road safety reputation for vulnerable road users, especially children, is appalling with 1084 injuries and 5 fatalities to 5 to 17-year olds from 865 crashes in the five years between 2005 – 2009 between 8am and 9.30am and 3pm and 4.30pm within 250 metres of schools. Other countries are managing speeds outside schools and play areas and have far better statistics than ours. According to the International Road Traffic Accident Data Base, in the Netherlands, where the vulnerable road user is king, in 2009 3.6% of the road deaths were children aged 0 to 14 and here in New Zealand it was 5.7%. In 15 to 17 year olds the road deaths were 4% in comparison to 6.5% here. There they have had speed reductions outside schools for years and if you cycle or walk, the law is on your side not the side of the current road ruler here: The car driver. Internationally in 2009 we are amongst the highest in reported child road deaths with 2.5% of 0-14 year olds per 100,000 population with only Greece coming higher with 2.7% in the same age group and in the 15 to 17 year olds, we come out worst with a whopping 13.1% per 100,000 population. Meanwhile in the same year Luxembourg had 0% fatalities in that age group and they of course have speed restrictions in place outside schools. To improve road safety, we need to change driver attitudes towards children and other vulnerable road users and that has to start outside schools. These areas should be sacred places for children, especially when children are coming as going, as this is where they are at their most distracted.

Many organisations are backing the call for a National School Speed Limit and with each letter or Press Release, I or others write there are more joining in with the call. Individual parents throughout the country are taking matters into their own hands and lobbying their councils to do something, but to deal with each council individually seems pointless as there are many hurdles for the councils themselves to overcome. The Government needs to take this on and perhaps rather than heaving it on to the already well loaded shoulders of Gerry Brownlee, our Transport Minister/Earthquake Recovery Minister a special School Travel Department needs to be urgently put in place, covering all travel to school including school buses and safe routes.

Our children spend a lot of time at school and at the moment their journeys to and from school are incredibly dangerous. But it doesn’t have to be. We could continue to wrap our children up in cotton wool and drive them right up to the front gate, ignoring the fact that we are endangering all the other children trying to get to school. This doesn’t matter to many parents, as long as their cotton wool clad darlings can get there ok. Parents have to take the safety of school travel into their own hands, but at what cost to other children? We should be able to let them walk, cycle or take the bus. These alternatives modes of transport need to be safe, so that parents are encouraged to let their children use them. We need a National School Speed Limit of 40km/h at the very least when children are coming and going. Remember if the Government continues to do nothing, there will be no improvement in our appalling road toll especially of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. Nothing comes of nothing…. Must I and all the other concerned parties have to continue this battle, when the answer is so simple?

By Lucinda Rees.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NZ-School-Speeds/109007702471189

ENDS

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