Schools need protection from reckless and dangerous drivers

SHOCKING figures showing reckless and dangerous driving around schools support the calls for increased safety measures to protect students.

Lakemba MP Jihad Dib speaks at the vigil organised at Banksia Road Primary School in Greenacre. Picture: Christian Gilles

CALLS for increased safety measures to protect students have been backed up by shocking figures showing the extent of reckless and dangerous driving around schools.

In the aftermath of the Banksia Road Public School tragedy, where a car crashed into a classroom and killed two young boys, figures from Revenue NSW show last year a staggering 143,451 fines were issued to drivers in school zones, including speeding (111,011), parking (30,599), running a red light (492), illegal U-turns (669) and using a mobile phone (680).

And new figures from the Department of Transport show 69 children aged under 17 years were injured in the three years to 2017 after being hit by a car in a school zone.

A towing company removes the car involved in the Banksia Road Primary School tragedy in Greenacre last Tuesday. Picture: Jonathan Ng

These add weight to calls by Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib for a statewide audit of safety around schools.

Mr Dib, a former high school principal who is the member for Lakemba, said a safety audit of both on-site and off-site traffic arrangements would capitalise on talks that were already underway at schools.

“No-one could have ever imagine something like this happening, and we need to let police do their job, but I think it is timely that we do a safety audit to see what we can do better,” he said.

“Schools are talking about it anyway — staff are asking, could this happen here?

He said changes could include electronic gates where staff have to be “buzzed in” to access an on-site carpark, to installing bollards where appropriate.

Outside schools, it would examine whether there needed to be greater traffic management or pull-in bays.

“I have visited many schools and there are some where you have to be buzzed in to get through a gate — not every school will need the same measures, but I think it is important that we don’t let an incident like this be ignored,” Mr Dib said.

One teacher, who declined to be named, said last week that staff at a north shore school said the biggest issue were the “Lorna Janes” — mums so desperate to get to their morning gym class that they ignored traffic rules.

“Some parents think it is their God-given right to park wherever they think they can when dropping off their child,” she said.

“I had one mother — we call them the Lorna Janes — park on a pedestrian crossing where about 500 children were about to cross.”

The most fines issued in school zones were within the Ryde (11,763), Bankstown (11,759), Randwick (10,110), Kogarah (7535), and Ku-ring-gai (6950) council areas.