By Brendan Rees
A lollipop person is in line to man a busy road at the front of St Francis de Sales Primary School by the start of Term 1 next year.
It comes after a Grade 5 student Joanna from the Lynbrook school led a petition in August calling on Casey Council for a crossing supervisor to be installed on Paterson Drive.
Another two students had also since written to council about improving road safety in the area.
However, under the current Road Safety Road Rules, a school crossing supervisor cannot be introduced at the existing zebra crossing.
According to a council report, “school crossing supervisors have no enforcement of power on zebra crossings and therefore a crossing supervisor at this location would not achieve the result suggested by students.”
Councillors voted unanimously in October to remove the zebra crossing at Paterson Drive and install a supervised school crossing.
In a pedestrian survey at the zebra crossing undertaken by council, data showed 452 pedestrians and 13 cyclists crossed the road during the 6am-8am time span on the 23 August.
Cr Damien Rosario said the leadership shown by the students from St Francis de Sales Primary was inspiring.
“Congratulations to the future leaders of tomorrow for their initiatives and they should be very proud of what they’ve done,” he said.
In a statement, St Francis de Sales Primary School said: “We are very proud of our student Joanna Luiz and her commitment to community safety.”
