Crossing supeoodhead risks her life every day to see Wesburn Primary School children safely across the road.
By Mara Pattison-Sowden
They have a list of incidents, dating back to September 2009, where cars have driven through the crossing while the supervisor and children were still on the road.
Parents have started a petition to get electronic speed signs through town, to ensure motorists would have no excuse for being “unaware” of the lower speed limit during school hours.
Nine-year-old student Nate told the Mail he was nearly hit by a car after it drove around another car that was stopped at the crossing, and flew through the stop sign almost hitting him.
“Cars need to slow down because we need to cross properly,” he said.
Megan Rostron regularly walks her two children to school and said the final straw was a P-plate driver rushing at top speed through the school zone.
“I should be able to let my kids walk up to school safely by themselves, but I can’t,” she said.
“I’m just so angry because the cars are flying past every day.”
Mrs Rostron said she believes the only school zones where cars slow down are the ones with electronic signs.
Wesburn Primary School principal Anne Stenhouse agreed, “especially in the morning in peak hour times, much of the traffic doesn’t pay a lot of heed with the static signs.”
Ms Stenhouse said she had kept a log of incidents since September 2009.
“But these are only the incidents that have been reported to me,” she said.
She said drivers needed to be aware that children could leap onto the road, if they dropped a ball for example, “and if you’re going over 40km/h there’s a greater chance to hit a child.”
“Young children do not have the capability until at least 8-years-old to manage traffic,” she said, adding that it was “only an hour at either end of the day.”
Crossing supervisor Pam Woodhead has been braving the Wesburn crossing twice a day for the past seven years.
She has hair-raising stories of drivers she watches, driving while holding a coffee, eating breakfast or brushing their hair, and drivers she swears “must be driving with their knees”.
“I’m very dubious of going out there – the cars are supposed to stop, but they don’t,” she said.
“The way the traffic comes through, we’ve had several near misses with the kids.”
Ms Woodhead, who has been “caught on the arm” by a car, believes the biggest problem is the amount of speed sign changes in Wesburn.
“It used to be straight 80km/h now it’s 70 and then 50, and 40 during school and they still fly down the road,” she said.
“If you get a log truck they really fly through, I’d hate to think what would happen if one hit a kid – they’d be flattened.”
Ms Woodhead said the first week back from the school holidays fared no different on the road.
“No-one takes any notice of it, they don’t seem to realise,” she said.
Warburton Police have been enforcing the speed around the school zones in the past few months.
Senior Sergeant Tom Wilkinson said the speed zones were designated as “high danger areas” for children’s safety.
He said the Warburton and Yarra Junction police officers were constantly doing random speed checks at the schools in the area, but they needed to work on changing drivers’ behaviour for the long term.
Mrs Rostron has written to VicRoads, which noted her issues about the crossing. The letter also reads, “however, the existing school speed zone signs at this location are considered appropriate and in accordance with VicRoads school speed zone guidelines.”
The petition, asking the state government to install solar-powered electronic signs, is available for signing at most Wesburn businesses, as well as the primary school.
