24 January 2014

The school year starts next week, and children are at risk as they travel around on foot, bikes or scooters. Many children will be starting school for the first time and may not know the dangers and risks.

Therefore, schools need parents’ support to ensure children arrive and leave safely. Worries about being late can mean drivers forget or ignore the rules, and schools often have trouble with people double-parking, speeding through school zones and doing U-turns. Day care centres face the same issues.

To help keep all Eastern Bay children safe on the roads, please be aware of school zone speed limits. These can vary depending on the school’s location; check with police or school staff if you’re not sure.

Parents should make sure children biking, walking or riding scooters to school have the right safety gear, and bags or clothing that make them highly visible.

If your child catches a bus to and from school, teach them to wait at the right stop. If you’re meeting them, wait on the same side of the road as the bus stop. Teach them how to be safe on and around the bus.

Drivers need to take care when passing school buses. The speed limit when doing so is 20km/h, whatever your direction. The faster a vehicle is travelling, the more likely a child will be killed if hit. According to the New Zealand Transport Agency, 75 percent of deaths from school bus incidents happen on roads with a 100km/h speed limit. At 20km/h there would be fewer incidents and less injury.

When a school bus has stopped, drivers must slow down and travel at 20km/h or less until well past (regardless of direction) if:

• The bus displays a school bus sign with flashing lights
• The bus displays a school bus sign (with or without flashing lights) and has stopped to pick up or drop off children

The following tips may help parents driving children to school:

• Get to know the school’s drop-off and pick-up practices and always follow them. Talk about the rules with your child and practice following them
• Don’t speed or break rules if you’re running late
• Focus on your driving – avoid distractions such as mobile phones
• Watch for children walking between parked vehicles
• Be ready for anything unexpected and drive to the conditions at all times
• Always park safely
• Watch out for school buses. Be ready to slow down and even stop whenever you see one; don’t follow too closely