Coral Park to trial school safety

By Sarah Schwager
CORAL Park Primary School will be the first in a trial on pedestrian safety with a new school zone pavement marking to be installed outside the school in a matter of weeks.
The Hampton Park school has long been hampered by complaints about the notorious roads around the school.
Two treatment pads with ‘School Zone’ written on them will be placed on Coral Drive, which has about 6500 vehicles travelling on it every day.
Casey Council voted at Tuesday’s meeting to install the pads at the school with a report to come back to council nine months after installation.
At the meeting, council also decided to include Narre Warren South P-12 College in the trial.
Springfield Ward councillor Michael Farley said the area around the Narre Warren school was very dangerous for children walking across the roads.
He said he had received many complaints from parents and crossing supervisors.
About 12 schools were identified in the report as being viable for the treatment pads.
The roads around the school must be high volume and high speed, have speed-related issues, high pedestrian numbers and parking issues, and issues relating to safety around the school.
River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith said Coral Park Primary School was the best option for the trial.
“Coral Drive is an unusual road. It is curved all the way around so you can’t see what’s around the corner,” Cr Smith said.
“I’m surprised they haven’t had deaths and injuries there.”
Councillor Paul Richardson said he was happy for council’s money to be spent on the school zones as it would save children’s and pedestrians’ lives.
The proposed treatment pads lie flat across the road, measure six by eight metres, are deep red with a yellow border and white lettering and provide a high grip surface.
The pads are expected to cost $5000 per installation, although that figure would most likely be less for the trial installations.