Lawless traffic at school a nightmare
Residents warn of chaos, growing danger
RESIDENTS of New Rest near Louis Rex Primary School are up in arms over traffic congestion near the school and the danger this is posing to the pupils’ lives.
The Rep visited the area just after 1pm on Friday afternoon following various complaints from people living in the area that the traffic between 1pm and 2pm, the time when most children were being collected, was turning into a nightmare.
The Rep found the single-lane street in front of the school heavily congested with a bus, taxis and cars resorting to mounting the pavement to collect children.
Children were seen running in the road despite the danger posed by oncoming vehicles.
A homeowner who did not want to be named said the problem had been ongoing for years.
“The children run to their transport and there are drivers who drive fast in this area.”
He said some of the children were being dropped as early as 5am outside the school and picked up during the evening.
“No one cares about these children. The parents and school are to be blamed for this.”
He described the situation as “horrible”, saying the principal should go to the schools in town to see there were no children playing in the streets after school.
He said a child had recently been “lost” and was later found in Aloevale.
“At other schools, parents are given 15 minutes [after school] to fetch their kids.’’
He said the drivers of vehicles collecting children were also rude to the residents.
“There are accidents in the morning because some cars do not even stop at the stop signs. There is a bus that just stops in the street. Some drivers block off [the entrance to] our yards and want to fight with us and we have to constantly call the police.”
A resident who also wanted to remain anonymous said the school’s pupils were littering in the area and sitting on their walls. “They are destroying our fences. Every afternoon we have to clean up and they do not listen. The cars are also making a lot of noise with their hooters.”
Principal Bevan Christoffels said the school would be going through a major upgrade which would include a drop-off and pick-up area.
“It is not that we are not doing anything. We have discussed this in our SGB meeting. At the moment, we cannot do anything because of the building process which is going to happen at the school.”
The traffic congestion had been reported to the traffic department.
“Many parents speak to me and it is a headache. We have spoken to the drivers and the traffic department officials. They told us to write down the registration numbers of the vehicles and when we report them, nothing is done. The drivers ignore us and just pass through our scholar patrol.”
He said they could not keep the children on the school premises until late.
“We tried to keep the children inside, but there are no teachers to look after them after 3pm. There are problems if we leave the children without supervision – some of the older boys and girls started to smoke in the school toilets.”
Enoch Mgijima municipal spokesman Fundile Feketshane had not responded at the time of going to press.