To think there's no need to review school parking arrangements

[SEmyarse]

About a week ago, 2 boys were hit by a car outside our primary school. I knew nothing about it at the time, since I go out the back gate, and only found out when a newsletter came home outlining it and encouraging us to talk to our kids about road safety.

A couple of days later the local paper came out, and it had more details. Apparently the car was driven by an 89 year old man, the traffic light was red, but he saw neither the traffic light nor the 2 boys, aged 5 and 8. They both sustained minor injuries. There were lots of quotes from mums saying 'something must be done', 'will it take a death to change things?', 'no-one cares about our children' hysterical kind of stuff in my opinion.

So now, the more militant amongst the mums, are harassing everyone to sign petitions to get parking installed so no-one has to cross the road because its far too dangerous. Ironically, as far as I can tell, they seem to be the same people who consistently park up the access road, and caused a lot of problems when the fire engine had to get in once.

The parking arrangements at the moment are either in close roads, or in the pub car park, that the landlord kindly lets us use across the road. There was a problem recruiting a lollipop person a couple of years ago, so a green man crossing was installed. This is where the boys were hit.

Surely the only thing that needs reviewing is the elderly man's driving ability? It seems that many of the 'hysterical mob' will only be happy if they can drop the kids by the classroom door. i can't imagine anyone has to walk further than 5 mins to park in our little village.

YANBU, I'm afraid crossing the road is something that can't be avoided entirely and it sounds like there are good arrangements in place ie a traffic lighted crossing.

Sounds a like people feeling they should do something, and not really thinking through the implications.

Don't worry Highways won't spend a single penny, no matter how many petitions they send in,

And it would take a few deaths in the same spot in less than two years to get anything changed.

if they are really concerned, they should raise funs for an indipendant risk

assessment, which will probably show that the present arrangement is the best option,

if they do rase money, it would be best used on special road safety training days for parents and children, with lots of mention of considerate parking, and no blocking pavements.

Ignore they will run out of steam within a month.

My only concern is that someone speaks to the bloke involved, and makes sure he's fit to drive. Would that happen automatically?

I would imagine so- if the police were involved as they should have been, then they will take action as they see fit. If he's 89 years old I would imagine that will involve at the very least revoking his licence until he is declared medically fit. He might need to go to court on a count of driving without due care and attention or something.

I know what you mean... You can do everything right, but you can't eliminate all risk from the combination of pedestrians and roads. On the other hand "reviewing" the arrangements following an accident isn't just sensible, it's a legal requirement. But if everything is set up appropriately, that's what the review will say, and nothing need change.

Well that's fine then.

I'll just have to avoid the screechy brigade for a while. I heard talk of making banners and things. I swear they only want parking on the school premises so they don't actually have to get out of the car. When someone tried to get me to sign a petition, I foolishly pointed out I was more worried about the blocked access road. This did not go down well. I was like 'that bloody head teacher' ,she's always moaning at them about it too apparently.

They can put in what ever they like - you will still get traffic problems around a school because people are lazy.

One of our schools has 2, yes 2! carparks AND total unlimited restrictions of another carpark outside a shop at the end of the road. Most parents live locally. We have the police and traffic wardens, we have volunteers taking down registration numbers of people ignoring road markings outside of schools and parking on the zig zags. We have police and other volunteers in who talk to the kids about road safety.

Every single term we will get at leat 3 kids who have been hurt because of what is basically LAZY, dangerous and selfish driving and parking.

Farrow- we seem to have solved the zig zag lines problem (for the moment at least). We now have signs outside school that make it illegal to park on the zig zags at certain times- and the head teacher stands on the gate and will photograph any offenders and report to the police (not sure if it would stand up in court, but the threat seems to be enough, and the police would patrol if there was evidence that the signs were being ignored regularly).

On the other hand, people now seem to think that it is OK to park on the zig zags outside the stated times, and will park there for appointments, picking up poorly children etc.

My friend was knocked off his bike by a very elderly hit & run driver, he admitted to the polic that yes he'd been at that roundabout at that time of day - completly hadn't seen the cyclist or noticed knocking him off don't think he will be driving any more!

So op YANBU!!!

Can't wait for the double yellow lines to go down outside the school. there is plenty of parking available, just lazy people don't want to use it.

In this case it wasn't the parents, it was the man who failed to notice a red light and 2 boys crossing in the proper place.

We've got yellow lines outside the school.

Hasn't stopped selfish parents parking there at all.

They only move on when the PCSO is about (rarely, although she's a good sort who tries to come up more than she's supposed to).

Crohnically - I dont understand why the sign "makes it illegal to park on tje zig zags at certain times". It is always illegal to park on zigzags.

I was under the impression yellow zigzags had a sign nearby stating the times they were in force. You can't park on white zigzags (at pedestrian crossings) at any time.

www.gov.uk/waiting-and-parking

Without the sign, the zig zags can't legally be enforced.

Blueberry woods- that's right, previously we had no sign with the times the yellow zig zags were in force so it wasn't an offence to stop on them.