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Slow down and follow the signs for a safer holiday season when you’re travelling
We’re all about to hit the road, with summer finally here and visitors able to get around. We are in holiday mode — but there are a couple of groups of people who are out there to do a job who can feel particularly vulnerable.
The first group is school patrol teams, and with most schools closing down next week, their job is done for the year. It was great to be part of the Whangārei and Kaipara school patrol teams’ winding-up and retraining session at the Aquatic Centre a couple of weeks ago. I was there representing Northland AA — the national sponsor of the high-visibility uniforms the school patrollers in our area will be wearing.
School patrols started in New Zealand in 1928 at Waikari School in Dunedin, with students waving flags from the footpath to alert oncoming drivers. They gained the power to stop traffic via government regulation in 1944, which brought about the standardised practices — the specially-trained kids and lollipop signs at school crossings — we see today.
Sergeant Ian Anderson and Senior Constable Ewen Cummings, with their community policing team, have
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over 470 Year 7 and 8 children in Whangārei, Dargaville and Maungatūroto training under their eyes. They ensure these kids have the training and the commitment of themselves, their parents and their teachers so the programme can be run, and with a new crew every year.
This important jobrequires getting to school early and being prepared. They are overseen by an adult, but these kids are effectively in charge of groups of their peers. They learn valuable life skills like being organised, assertive and patient. They are recognised in class and in school reports. They get a badge and get to wear a uniform, and get rewarded with a fun day at the end of the year.
These kids could be seen to be literally taking their lives in their hands, in stepping out into traffic to be in charge of the safety of those crossing the road. It was great to be part of their acknowledgement.
While school patrols are winding up for the year, road worker crews are gearing up. We’ve spent the winter moaning about the potholes and the general state of our roads. It’s over summer and autumn that these things get fixed, or at least maintained.
Except for the period December 21 to January 9, there will be road gangs, road cones, heavy machinery, dust, stop-go operators and “expect delays” signs all over our road networks as roading contractors set about one of the largest road maintenance programmes ever done in Northland.
If you add that Niwa is predicting that the cyclone season will come early and that holidaymakers have been unleashed onto our roads for the first time in three years, then we have the potential for a perfect storm.
So — slow down, be patient and ensure that you make the time to take your time on your journey. The people working on our roads have families too, who expect them to come home from work.
When doing maintenance on a road, there are all sorts of permutations for figuring out the best time, method, materials, people, the desired quality and how much money is available.
There are always trade-offs that will affect someone in a negative way. It is the hands of roading engineers and contractors to do these designs and implement these decisions — but always lurking in the background is Murphy’s law.
Nothing is as easy as it looks, everything will take longer than you think, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. All these types of occurrences could enter your thinking when contemplating a road journey.
Roadside workers face more risks than most of us in our workplaces. Near-misses are common. We can all play a role in ensuring their safety by slowing down and obeying the signs when passing through their workplaces this summer.
Quiz 1
In te reo Maori, what does the phrase “haere rā” mean?
2 Antilles pinktoe, greenbottle blue, curlyhair, Texas brown and Indian ornamental are all species of what type of animal?
In Greek mythology, who was the ruler of the Underworld?
4
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and are all albums by what Jamaican-born singer?
5 What author wrote the novels and
6 What American president signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, legally freeing more than 3.5 million slaves?
7 Who starred as the titular character in the 1967 prison drama film Cool Hand Luke?
8 Leonardo da Vinci was born in the middle of what century? What meat is traditionally used in a Cornish pasty?
The music video for what 2014 Taylor Swift song featured Scott Eastwood as the singer’s love interest?
9 10 History 1765
Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, is born in Westborough, Massachusetts.
The United States enters World War II as Congress declare war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
the Chinese Nationalist government move from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists press their attacks.
Rock star and former Beatle John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sign a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
AIDS patient Kimberly Bergalis, who contracted the disease from her dentist, dies in Fort Pierce, Florida, at age 23.
In a startling about-face, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tells the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandon their defenses.
The Supreme Court rejects Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground; the court refuses to call into question the certification process in the state.
1941 1949 1980 987 1991 2008 2020 Birthdays
● Pop musician Bobby Elliott (The Hollies) is 81
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Actor Kim Basinger is 69
● Actor Teri
Hatcher is 58
● Singer Sinead O’Connor is 56
Quiz Answers 1 6. 3
Farewell/goodbye, Tarantula, Hades, Grace Jones, Jeffrey Eugenides, Abraham Lincoln 7. Paul Newman 8. 15th 9. Beef 10. Wildest Dreams Questions set by Believe It Or Not
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