Drivers scaring road patrol kids

Otumoetai Primary road patrol volunteer Leah Rattray, 10, struggled to put her sign out as cars wouldn't stop for her. Photo/George Novak

Otumoetai Primary road patrol volunteers are struggling to get their signs out in peak hour traffic as cars aren't stopping.

The crossing on Otumoetai Rd was upgraded in January to make it more visible and was converted to a staggered crossing with a fenced off island in the centre of the road.

Principal Geoff Opie said many drivers were not stopping to allow his road patrol volunteers to put their signs out.

The Bay of Plenty Times visited the new crossing yesterday and watched 10-year-olds Arabella Moore and Leah Rattray carrying out their duties.

Road patrol rules were that no one could use the crossing unless both sides had their signs out. When Arabella put her sign down, the cars on her side of the road quickly stopped, but Leah had to wait for all the traffic to stream past before she found a big enough gap and quickly whipped out her sign.

"It's quite confusing whether the cars will stop for you or not," Arabella said. "They will slow down, but they don't always stop. They go fast, then slow down right before us then go fast again."

Arabella said she sometimes did not feel safe because of how fast cars were going.

"When I put my sign out sometimes it feels like they're going to go right through it."

Leah said it could be "quite scary". She said sometimes the drivers would see the girls waiting to put their signs out and stop, but not often.

Mr Opie said between 8.30am and 9am, about 1000 cars would pass the school. He said the new crossing was probably causing confusion for some drivers as with a split crossing, cars legally only had to wait for pedestrians crossing their side of the road, whereas road patrollers waited for both sides to be clear.

"While they do slow down, trying to find a gap is a challenge for the kids. Often we just don't get a gap so we can have people waiting there for a long time. We can't have kids crossing on one side when the traffic isn't stopped on the other."

Mr Opie said the school had been using adults to assist with crossing in recent years and may revert to this.

He said without the signs, motorists had seemed more respectful and would stop for pedestrians.

Travel Safe co-ordinator Ange Joyes said Otumoetai Rd traffic volumes had gone up in recent years and a new crossing was deemed necessary to enhance road safety.

Mrs Joyes said Travel Safe, a road safety body under the joint umbrellas of the Tauranga City and Western Bay District councils, had also wanted to get road patrollers back on the street at the school as it helped to teach the children responsibility and road safety.

Western Bay of Plenty road policing manager Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said he was not aware of any complaints about the crossing or motorists behaviour around the school.

"I would encourage people to report any issues to police."

He said motorists needed to be extremely mindful of children crossing when they were driving near schools.

"Tauranga's population has increased in the past few years and traffic can be quite congested particularly around schools.

"It is all about personal responsibility of drivers and setting an example for the children."