Another child has been run over

[Cocopogo]

That’s two outside DC school in past few months. Probably both by other parents as both at pick up time. The school regularly sends out messages to parents not to drive down the road the school is on and to park elsewhere and walk but clearly some parents don’t give a shit. I’m very angry about this and also worried my DC could be next. Would you contact the school to ask what more they are doing to keep our kids safe? What more can they do? Get more staff outside at end of day? Stagger pick up?

To everyone saying they live miles away from school of course you can drive but why not park in a car park nearby and walk the rest of the way. We walk to school we live over a mile away and always have walked. There is a car park halfway between my house to the school maybe leaving half a mile or less actually to walk to the school. It is always completely empty. Meanwhile I manage to walk down and up the school road faster than the cars in the traffic jam therefore it would also be much faster for all the commuters to park in the car park, walk their children to school and also beat the traffic but I know many parents with no excuse whatsoever not to walk just pure laziness and we wonder why there is so many obese children in the country when they don't even get the opportunity to walk half a mile to school.

It's awful where we are too. So many parents stopping on the zigzags to drop off their child because they're in such a hurry and they're oh so important than the others. So many selfish parents out there.

Awful you've just reminded me to contact the head about repeat offenders who use tte yellow zig zags as their personal parking/ drop off zone grrrrrrrrrr

@GappyValley yes and I acknowledged that it my post.

I don’t know what the solution is to the wider problem of why people don’t do the right thing. Do workplaces need to give more leeway with start times maybe so there’s not that crazy rush to get the kids out the car and off to work maybe?

I work at a school and parents have brought this in: schoolstreets.org.uk/ It works really well as the road is completely closed around school start and end times.
I hope the child is okay - how horrible.

That's very sad, and surely the point where some proper intervention needs to happen from police/highways agency etc?

If its not a main road, school streets/road closures are very sensible. Vast majority of parents have enough time to walk 5 minutes there and back to a sensible car parking spot.

[quote Isittimenow]@GappyValley yes and I acknowledged that it my post.

I don’t know what the solution is to the wider problem of why people don’t do the right thing. Do workplaces need to give more leeway with start times maybe so there’s not that crazy rush to get the kids out the car and off to work maybe?[/quote]
Surely you just leave the house 10 mins earlier?
There shouldn’t be a crazy rush unless you don’t allow enough time

It’s funny because a lot of the people who I know who couldn’t possibly park anywhere not within spitting distance to school because they had to get to work asap still did the same thing when wfh and simply making the five min return journey to their house.

Lot of lazy, entitled, selfish people about.

The streets near school here are not fun at pick off / drop off time. The trouble is, it's not just the parking on corners / zig zags, but even the legal parking is problematic. There are so many cars pulling in and out on a narrow road. The infant school and primary are very close but you need to cross 2 roads to get between them, of course these roads are filled with cars, as well as lots of tiny people who are prone to darting out unexpectedly. I know those parents parking on that street are perfectly within their rights but it just feels like a disaster waiting to happen.

Assuming you're in Britain, there's elections next week so there's a load of people you can contact who will likely fall over themselves to help. Start with local council candidates.

The school can ask nicely but it will have minimal effect, probably only for a few days. You have more chance getting the Prime Minister to tell the truth with that approach.

Staggering school hours will reduce the number of cars but for someone with several children at the school will cause inconvenience and no doubt any proposal will come to nothing.

In this country (and many others) law enforcement on motoring is lax, and with the cuts in police numbers the number of breath tests has halved in the last 10-12 years. I speculate especially in the mornings a number of parents drive their child to school who are over the limit (at least the Scottish one if not the English one), and some who take drugs and are affected by that.

Anyone whose vehicle looks unsafe, anyone who might appear to be over the limit in the morning, report to the police with evidence straight away. If the school are to suggest any action against unreasonable parents it must not be any hollow threat but followed up 100%.

It’s not always as simple as that though. You could leave the house at 4am but maybe not allowed to drop child off till 8.40. A five minute walk back to the car could mean the difference between getting to work on time and not. I’m just thinking aloud rather than agreeing or disagreeing with anyone but I think the main issue is that many of us are working parents desperately trying to balance school runs with getting to work whilst minimising childcare costs and most people are doing their best.

As I say I don’t know what the solution is though.

Is battling to get out of gridlock hell outside the school actually quicker though than walking parking elsewhere and walking for a few minutes?

This makes me so upset. We live 1.5 miles from our school and the kids walk with me every day. They’re in year 5 and I’d love to give them some independence by waving them off from a street or two away, slowly get them ready for secondary school...
but those last roads are the most dangerous area because of parents in a hurry speeding through tiny little residential streets. It’s almost like they don’t realise that there are 100s of small children nearby at the exact same time. I wish I could see inside their heads and understand why they do it.

I think the parents need to take some responsibility and make sure their kids don’t run into the road. I have had children run into the road before and if you live right next to a school like I used to it’s really difficult trying to dodge them all.

My DDs school used to do a walking bus from a car park so there was less traffic and made it 20mph. They also had a crossing put in and parents volunteered to make sure the kids crossed properly.

Schools can't really do anything off-property. Ours appeals to the local police to come and do a round occasionally but the school staff get abuse confronting parents.

I drive but I drive very aware it is a school.

In my experience some parents are the worst. At our primary they park in the pavement. Park over dropped curbs that children are waiting on to cross the road. Park on double yellows. And yes they pull up on the zig zags, let the kids out the door and kit the accelerator.

Yanbu, this really makes me angry. We moved house last year, and until I have moved the kids school, have no choice but to drive to school. I always give myself plenty of time, and make sure I park properly. Very often it's 5-10 mins walk to school, which I'm happy to do. When I see other parents parking on blind corners, or on double yellows outside the school I feel so angry 😡

I know a lot of urban parents can’t conceive of the notion, but our primary is in a rural location and there are no car parks at all nearby, there isn’t even a footpath. Only a handful of children live close enough to walk, and those who are driven there would have to walk on the main road itself if they had to walk from a distant parking location. I know we are unusual, but it shows that one solution doesn’t for all.

[quote CheshireCats]@UserX . We live 8 miles from school. No public transport. That a good enough reason?[/quote]
But you can still park away from the school gates.

@FatAnneTheDealer I totally agree and I have many a time wanted to tap someone’s window and say turn the bloody engine off! Isn’t it illegal to have it idling? We also live in a part of the country that have some of the worst air pollution in Europe!! People really don’t give a shit.

Teach the kids road sense, dont push the issue onto others, poor parenting IMO

Contact council and start a petition for road calming measures - speed bumps, islands to allow one car through, no through road ar school times

@VeganVeal

Teach the kids road sense, dont push the issue onto others, poor parenting IMO

Children do need teaching road sense but parents also need to drive safely, not parking over crossings and dropping their children off by pulling up on the zigzags.

@hazandduck, it isn’t illegal, as the Highway Code doesn’t have force of law, but it is definitely against the Highway Code. And it is illegal if an enforcement officer asks them to turn the engine off and they don’t.

But most people don’t know that. So if I ask them (nicely) to turn their engine off, because it is contrary to the Highway Code, and they don’t, I tell them that in that case I am going to take a photograph of their license plate and log it with the police. That usually works, although sometimes they tell me that they don’t give me permission to photograph them (because they think that’s illegal) and I just say that they are in a public place and I can take any photographs I like. (Which I can.)