Sydney’s worst roads for speeding, motorists running red lights in school zones revealed

Dangerous drivers are putting children’s lives at risk with new data revealing the worst school zones for speeding and motorists running red lights. See the full list.

NSW’s worst red light danger spot is on Chalmers Street in Redfern. Picture: Tim Hunter

School-childrens’ lives are being put at risk by thousands of dangerous drivers who speed and run red lights at traffic intersections in school zones, new data shows.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the state’s worst red light danger spot is on Chalmers Street, in Redfern - right next to Inner Sydney High School - which has pinged 99 drivers running a red light in the past 10 months.

And the worst intersection for speeding is at North Ryde, on Lane Cove Road northbound - where a staggering 4054 drivers broke the speed limit passing through the lights.

All up, NSW’s red light cameras snared 15,777 cases of drivers seriously flouting the road rules in school zones - averaging out at 52 every single day.

Moments before three school boys were hit by a car at Crows Nest earlier in May. Source: Supplied

Road safety experts have called for more enforcement existing road rules by the police, saying school zone road safety has been neglected in recent years.

The new data comes as the three North Sydney School boys hit by a car allegedly running a red light at Crows Nest last week recover from their injuries, with the most seriously injured of the three, a 13-year-old, now discharged from the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick.

Parents and Citizens Federation President Natalie Walker said the organisation had long wanted to have “Local Traffic Committees” in each local government area to include parent representation for matters that involve roads or traffic near schools.

“This would be a welcome step toward ensuring local parents have as much a say as possible on local traffic matters that may directly affect their children,” she said.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury says motorists need to slow down near schools. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said there was no excuse for running red lights in school zones.

“Going through a red light and speeding is particularly dangerous, it’s like playing Russian roulette,” he said.

“If that’s unacceptable, doing it in a school zone is absolutely intolerable. We need people to slow down everywhere.

“They need to be particularly alert in school zones. There’s no excuse for running a red light anywhere.”

Motorists are flouting the rules around traffic lights in school zones at a rate of 52 every day. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Pedestrian Council’s Harold Scruby slammed selfish drivers for endangering children and said the state’s pedestrian road toll “is going through the roof”.

“Red light cameras are great life savers as people are less likely to run a red light if they know there’s a camera there,” he said. “The question is why there isn’t one on every red light.”

Pedestrian fatalities have risen 50 per cent in the first five months of this year, compared to last year. Mr Scruby said a 2010 NSW Auditor General’s report showed only about two per cent of school zones were properly enforced for speed limits and “nothing has changed all these years later”.

And the newly revived requirement to have warning signs 250m out from mobile speed cameras, has hampered their ability to be deployed in school zones, Mr Scruby said, which are often shorter in distance.

The data shows the worst roads in the state for offences at crossings near school are concentrated mostly in Sydney, with the exception of Albury, which was the second worst in the state for running red lights.