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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-16 Daily Xml
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National Walk Safely to School Day

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:34): I rise because this week is National Road Safety Week and this Friday is National Walk Safely to School Day, which is an event that has been celebrated over the last 24 years, encouraging children to walk to school safely and commute to school safely. Unfortunately, I think it is going to be very difficult for many children at many schools in my local community to participate in Walk Safely to School Day because at many schools, particularly those on main roads in my electorate like Kensington Road and Portrush Road, it is very difficult to walk to school safely.

In my view, there is a lot more we need to be doing to improve road safety around our schools in the eastern suburbs because at so many of them we see an accident just waiting to happen. Of course, my community was left devastated by an accident that happened a couple of months ago at Marryatville High School, when two students were tragically struck by a truck at a pedestrian crossing on their way to school after that truck failed to stop at a red signal.

This shocking incident was witnessed by so many in the school community but also impacted so many in our wider community. I have been contacted by a number of parents, caregivers and others who are very concerned about pedestrian and road safety around our schools and ensuring that our schoolchildren can get to school safely.

Since that accident, I have called on the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, in conjunction with the Department for Education, to undertake a review of road safety around our schools and make recommendations that might improve road safety near our schools. I want the review to identify any area where we can improve, ideas like improved infrastructure or changed infrastructure, whether it be reviewing speed limits and reducing speed limits around schools, particularly on main roads, or perhaps considering traffic safety wardens, which I know is a scheme working very successfully interstate.

I have also begun a process of consulting on this issue with schools in my own local community to seek their views and also to take on board their own ideas at each particular school. Already I have had a lot of feedback, whether it be from schools like Seymour College on Portrush Road, which has raised concerns with the location of the pedestrian crossing out the front of their school as well as the speed vehicles travel down Gilles Road. There was also a very concerning incident when teachers had to direct traffic on Portrush Road, Highway 1, when the lights went out at that pedestrian crossing and SAPOL was unable to attend.

I met with the principal of Loreto College, who has raised similar concerns. She has reported incidents of drivers running red lights at the pedestrian crossing out the front of that school and has also suggested reduced speed limits, introducing traffic wardens and perhaps, as a longer term solution, a footbridge at that particular school. Of course, I have had a lot of communication with Marryatville High School since the accident. I met with their principal just last week, and I am meeting with their governing council again in a couple of weeks.

Quite shockingly, I am told that at that school in the two days following the tragic accident on 22 March, there were two further incidents of cars going through a red light at that very pedestrian crossing, so clearly there is a lot more we need to do. At Marryatville High School, I am calling on the government to install a fixed red-light camera at that particular crossing. It is a sensible suggestion. Research has shown that a red-light camera at crossings can reduce the risk of injury crashes by up to 21 per cent.

The government's very own criteria for high-priority locations consider whether there are vulnerable pedestrians like school students and consider whether there is a main road with incidents and accidents. Marryatville High School meets all those criteria, and its students deserve to be able to walk safely to school not only this Friday but every day.

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