SAFETY OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28002, 23 June 1956, Page 5

SAFETY OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

AUTHORISED CROSSINGS FAVOURED

The retention of the present scheme of authorised pedestrian crossings outside schools is supported by the Canterbury Education Board. A suggestion had been made to the New Zealand Road Safety Council that authorised crossings at schools might be abolished because of the restricted period of their use and that temporary signs might be erected for the period school patrols were operating. One reason for the suggestion was the proposal that all authorised crossings should be lighted at night and that this would not be warranted on infre-quently-used school crossings. The Education Board felt that such a substitution would protect only the large body of children crossing roads immediately after school when patrols were out, but children at other times would not have the protection of an authorised crossing. It would be simple, the board felt, for school crossings to be exempted from the lighting provisions. Mr G. C. Warren said he had been disturbed by information recently supplied to the Metropolitan Road Safety Committee. Even though 1954 was the worst year for accidents, the incidence among children rose steeply in 1955, with 157 more killed or injured. A total of 363 boys and 125 girls was affected throughout the country. The first year at school was worst and a sudden increase was apparent between the age of 10 and 11 years. Was this the time children were given a bicycle or given a larger bicycle? Mr Warren said the report emphasised that reading and writing were not a matter of life and death, but road safety instruction was. Parents should be firmly told of the implications.