Would I be unreasonable to contact this school about pupils' road safety?

[Moominlandmidwinter]

The DC are at two different primary schools, which are fairly close to each other, with a secondary school nearby.

DH usually does the school pick-up. He's away for the weekend, so I had to do it today. For pick-up at the first school, I parked around the corner on a side road. As I pulled out to drive off again, a group of three boys, from the secondary school, came running down the middle of the road. I stopped and waited for them to pass. They made no attempt to get on to the pavement. Half-way to the second school, I turned off a mini-roundabout, and a girl stepped out right in front of me, and I had to slam on the brakes. Then, about 200m down the road, another couple of girls ran across the road just in front of me again.

By the time I got to the second school, I actually felt a bit shaky. I could easily have hit any of these children, and I'm a very careful driver. My lovely ex-childminder actually had a child from this school run out in front of her once, and ended up with a broken pelvis.

Traffic is very bad around the area at the beginning and end of the day, due to the close proximity of these schools (plus another primary school), and I wonder whether the school need to advise the pupils to exercise more caution. I'm considering contacting them to express my concern. Do I sound like a busybody? WIBU- is this just what children of secondary school age do (DD1 will be starting there in September)?

[hedgefund]

well hope the pupils take note but i would really like to see slow zones outside all schools in the future, the roads are getting so dangerous now and we seem to forget that kids, even teenagers don't have alot of road sense, since they are driven from such a young age and don't have to think too much about road safety until they have to walk places alone.

we really are lax in this country with road safety, which is bizarre as roads are getting busier and yet we expect kids to suddenly get road sense and not blame the drivers. it's a bit depressing imo.

[hedgefund]

maybe you could head up a road sense campaign for the school yourself moomin

[Moominlandmidwinter]

hedgefund.

[Loulybelle]

I have to drive past the Secondary to get to the Primary, and the little shits can scare the life out of you sometimes, my sister also attends that school, if i ever caught her doing that, she'd get a right earful.

[ivykaty44]

op - what do you want the school to do when you contact them?

My best friends son was knocked down through his own sillyness - he was crossing the road and just got on the pavement when he turned and ran of into the road again - the car didn't stand a chance of stopping. he smashed his leg up badly and had several ops and a lot of pain.

how do you stop teens leaving school from being silly and unaware of what they are doing and how it could impact on them?

[ivykaty44]

Oh and it is 12 year old that are most likely to be run over - read that somewhere this week

[Trigglesx]

Our primary and junior school has the same issue. What's more maddening is parents (with their children) going across the street just 10-30 feet from the marked crossing right out in front of cars. They're just teaching and reinforcing poor road safety, guaranteeing that someone's going to end up getting run over.

And the number of people that park up where they're not supposed to, blocking everything, combined with parents and children running across between parked up cars.... it's like an assault course getting through it.

[Scholes34]

At going home time every afternoon, either the principal of our secondary school or another member of the management team is at the front gate, saying goodbye to the pupils and keeping them in check. The principal knows nearly all of them by name, or at the very least which class they're in - and that's about 1,000 kids. No major issues with pedestrians and traffic. You might like to suggest this, OP.

[Jan49]

I think drivers are a big part of the problem. Well TBH they're most of the problem really. Lots of parents appear to drive their kids to/from school unnecessarily. Traffic isn't bad around schools just because the schools are there but because of parents making the decision to drive and also driving close to the school rather than parking some distance off if they feel they need to drive. If you couldn't drive, you'd find another way of managing children going to different schools, such as arranging for someone else to pick up or drop off a child whilst taking their own child.

[Trigglesx]

I think drivers are a big part of the problem. Well TBH they're most of the problem really. Lots of parents appear to drive their kids to/from school unnecessarily. Traffic isn't bad around schools just because the schools are there but because of parents making the decision to drive and also driving close to the school rather than parking some distance off if they feel they need to drive. If you couldn't drive, you'd find another way of managing children going to different schools, such as arranging for someone else to pick up or drop off a child whilst taking their own child.

Complete load of nonsense. I notice you say "appear" to drive kids to/from unnecessarily. Because you don't know. Perhaps they are disabled, or the children are, which makes the walk difficult. Perhaps they have children in two different schools. Perhaps they have to go straight to work afterwards.

I would say the problem with children (or adults) being out in the roadway in an unsafe manner is down to the children or adults involved, NOT the vehicles. The vehicles are where they are supposed to be - in the roadway. The children and adults might find it beneficial (at least safer!) to be where they should be as well - NOT in the roadway unless at a crossing. Not really rocket science, is it?

[BoneyBackJefferson]

moonmin

The school will be pleased that you have done it.

I have seen 3 school children hit by cars and buses, all due to the children running out in to the road.

Those of us on road duty now wear high viz vests and direct/slow down the traffic and the children but we still get children running out in to the road.

[Mawgatron]

I work in a secondary school and we all do duty throughout the week. There are staff outside the front of school (four) every morning and after school to supervise the students. If the head gets complaints he reminds the students in whole school assembly about the expectations of the school/potential risks to themselves and drivers etc.