Alexandra St incident shows danger zone
Man hit by car crossing busy road
Alexandra St, adjacent to Te Awamutu College, gets extremely busy and congested during school peak hour times. Last month a man was hit by a vehicle when he failed to look both ways before crossing the street — he was lucky to receive only minor injuries.
It was ironic that it wasn’t a student and the incident has highlighted how dangerous the street can be for motorists, students and pedestrians.
During school peak hours it is common for students to flood out onto the main street crossing between the school’s driveway and the dairy.
In a lot of cases students are crossing the street in an unsafe manner — walking too closely out in front of vehicles, not looking or in large groups.
“Every day I drive past that area during the peak times and I see the students showing unsafe behaviour when crossing,” says Te Awamutu police Community Constable Ryan Fleming.
However, they do not have a safe designated area to cross.
Te Awamutu College principal Tony Membery says the school has been told two peak times does not warrant a pedestrian crossing.
“There isn’t a crossing and there probably should be one, but the question is where would it go?” says Tony.
Waipa¯ District Council and local police also share the same concern as there is an array of places for students to cross the street.
“The difficulty at the college is the multiple places where students have to cross roads and there is no way to force all students to cross at specific locations,” says council’s transportation manager Bryan Hudson.
Measures that are currently in place are two kerb build-outs which encourage traffic to slow down and provide better visibility for pedestrians, there is also a speed indicator sign.
In 2019 council conducted a speed review and over 200 speed limits were changed across the
Waipa¯ District — the changes include 40km/h areas in Te Awamutu and Cambridge town centres, more 50 and 60km/h zones in urban areas, more 60 and 80km/h zones in rural areas and lower speeds near schools. However, the speed limit around
the college remained at 50km/h and the 40km/h section for town centre starts about 200 metres outside the school zone.
Te Awamutu police officer Brenton Irwin said a possible remedy would be to have the 40km/h area start from the railway which takes into consideration both the school and the industrial area.
Bryan says reducing the speed limit around the college was carefully considered during the speed review.
“It would be difficult to encourage drivers to stay at 40km/h outside of
the school start and finish times in front of the college without a significant change to the street environment,” says Bryan.
The solutions council is hoping will address students and motorists’ safety concerns involves looking to the streets surrounding the college and coming up with a holistic plan that considers walking, cycling, school bus transport and methods to manage speed.
The solutions can be expected to be presented as part of council’s 2021-2031 Long Term Plan.