Pupils take steps to stop speeding

Published on Friday 19 June 2009 10:04

YOUNG road safety campaigners have taken to the streets to appeal to motorists to stop speeding outside their school.

The pupils at St Margaret's have resorted to taking the "twenty's plenty" message to drivers following a number of near-misses on the pedestrian crossing outside the Newington school.

The school, which caters for nursery pupils right through to 18-year-olds, has been campaigning for years for improved road safety as they say drivers pass by children on their way to and from school at 40mph.

The pupils formed a "walking bus", armed with posters and banners, and paraded from St Margaret's on East Suffolk Road, along Crawford Road and Craigmillar Park before arriving back at the school.

They timed their protest to coincide with road safety charity Brake's bid to encourage more than 150,000 children in schools across the country to create the largest ever walking bus.

Headteacher at St Margaret's, Eileen Davis, says the problem is that the road is a main route into and out of the city so is very busy at peak times, causing drivers to speed and to weave in and out of the Greenway bus lane.

She hopes the walking bus exercise will not only encourage drivers to slow down outside the school, but also educate children to be more aware of what's going on around them.

She said: "When there's a jam in the main lane, people get impatient and use the Greenway and they don't always see the junction or the pedestrian crossing.

"The speed some people drive at is a serious issue and it's an accident waiting to happen.

"I actually hear the odd bump and I rush to the window. So far it's just been little bumps involving cars who have pulled out of a side road on to the main road. But I'm not going to hang around waiting for someone to get injured.

"We've had a couple of narrow misses where groups of children have been waiting to cross the road at the pedestrian crossing and cars have just come speeding past because they've either not been able to slow down in time or they've not seen the lights."

Every 20 minutes, a child is hurt or killed on foot in the UK, most on the way to or from school, and Mrs Davis hopes the council will soon introduce 20mph zones and flashing lights at the beginning and end of the school day.

A city council spokesman said a statutory consultation was already underway into installing flashing 20mph lights outside the school. The council hopes to be able to install the lights at the start of the new term.

Mary Williams OBE, chief executive of Brake, said: "There can be no driver who doesn't know that the faster you drive, the less time you have to react, the harder you hit, and the more likely it is that a child will die or be maimed.

"Through this event we are urging drivers to make a commitment to always drive at 20mph or lower around schools."