We have had three very worrying, very close ‘near-misses’ outside school in the past few weeks. Two involved unaccompanied children, the other a child with their parent. All three had the same sequence of events.
Pedestrians were waiting to cross at the point where the crossing patrol should be
A driver coming in one direction kindly stopped to allow the pedestrians to cross, even gesturing/signalling to the pedestrian
The pedestrians started to cross
The driver of a car coming the other way had either not seen what was happening or decided to ignore it and carry on
The pedestrians were almost hit by the second car
We have demonstrated this in Assembly today and shown children that they need to wait until either the road is clear or cars have stopped in both directions.
Please remember that sadly the crossing place is not a zebra crossing (we’ve repeatedly asked for it to be) and that cars are not obliged to stop to allow pedestrians to cross. Many do, which is great, but we need to assume they won;t until they’ve come to a halt!
Staff will continue to try to be out in this area in the mornings, but it cannot be guaranteed and we cannot perform the duties of the crossing patrol.