Pupil in near miss on zebra crossing
ACCIDENT FEARS ON ‘REALLY BUSY’ ROAD OUTSIDE SCHOOL
A MUM has spoken of her fears for what “could have been” after her son was nearly hit by a van at a zebra crossing outside school.
The nine-year-old boy was said to have narrowly escaped being knocked down just after leaving Arnold Mill Primary and Nursery School on Friday.
A car with a trailer which was slightly overhanging the crossing in Cross Street meant the boy could not fully see around it.
Pippa Betteridge, the mother of the boy, often watches her son as he crosses the zebra crossing in fear of reckless drivers.
She says that since July she has witnessed a handful of nearmisses on the road.
Some local residents believe the road directly outside the gates becomes too congested at the end of a school day.
Councillor Michael Payne helped to implement the new zebra crossing close to the school which has helped to ease parents’ nerves, but incidents have still occurred.
The 43-year-old mum said: “There have been cars that just continue on. For me, with the age he is and where we live it is not unreasonable that my son should be able to walk home safely by himself.
“It’s not that we don’t trust him, it’s that we don’t trust other people.
“My son was stood on the side of the zebra crossing where Arnold Mill Primary School is.
“The traffic on his side of the road had come to a stop.
“There was a big trailer that was slightly overhanging the back of the zebra crossing and he could not see past it.”
Ms Betteridge said she had witnessed three incidents of cars carrying on over the crossing in July.
“For me, as a parent, it’s about what could have been,” she added.
Other locals have also spoken about the danger the road poses, and the congestion that builds up when school finishes.
Nigel Jones, 58, a full-time carer who lives near the crossing, said: “They have no concerns for the crossing. It happens a lot, you get those quad bikes speeding down here as well – they’re just not bothered.
“If you can imagine what it’s like between half past 8 and half past 9 in the morning, there’s cars going up and down, we even get people parking on the zigzags, taking kids to the school and coming back.
“It is really busy, between 3 and 3.30pm, that time of day. You have people from Redhill coming down this way. To be honest, I’m really surprised no-one has been hit, I really am.”
Dave Brown, 73, a retired telephone engineer, added: “It’s a very busy road.
“School times are busy obviously and there’s the secondary school near here, the academy. The two combined, especially during the afternoon, can be horrendous.
“You’ve got to stick to the speed limits because of the speed bumps, it does slow the traffic down.”
Anther local resident, John Pickering, 74, said: “Before they put all of this here and the zebra crossing, it was absolute chaos - they’ve done everything they could to improve the safety.
“There is usually a queue of traffic so it really surprises me that a car came through too quickly.
“Because there’s a lot of parked cars, everything does tend to slow down – normally there’s a bit of a queue.
“When there’s nothing on the road, people tend to go quickly – you get the odd idiot who wants to fly.
“Normally they have a lady on the crossing further down but not this one. The only thing you could do is have someone here.”
It is claimed that Friday’s incident involved a maintenance van owned by tram operator NET.
NET said they were aware of the incident and were looking into the matter.
A NET spokesman commented: “We would like to thank the mother of the child for bringing this incident to our attention, and we are currently looking into the matter to see if one of our vehicles was, in fact, involved.
“However, safety is always the overriding priority of the entire NET team, including drivers of our maintenance vehicles, and they will be made aware of her wider concerns about this particular road crossing.”
It’s not that we don’t trust him, it’s that we don’t trust other people
Pippa Betteridge