By Brendan Rees
Children at Carlisle Primary School in Cranbourne continue to be put at risk, after an attempt to get a supervised school crossing at a busy road was rejected.
A push for a school crossing at the front of the school on Silky Oak Drive had gained the support of Casey Council.
But VicRoads rejected the suggestion, saying the road did not meet their requirements after conducting a traffic survey.
Proponent Cr Amanda Stapledon said a school crossing at the front of the school made “perfect sense,” adding council would ideally like to move the current school crossing on Silky Oak Drive to the front entrance of the school.
“This would minimise the amount of children competing with cars in the absence of a crossing.”
“I am committed to ensuring the best traffic management outcomes are achieved and the council officers are already putting things in place to do just that.”
She said a no standing zone had been placed outside of the front entrance and further measures would be considered in 2018.
“These have not been outlined to date, however I will be pursing them in the New Year.”
Carlisle Primary School Principal Lisa Vandenbosch said the school had safety concerns for children crossing between parked cars during peak times.
“We will continue to certainly advocate. It is a high priority for the school because as we have continued growth in the community of housing, the volume of children will continue to increase.”
She said students needed to walk quite a distance up the side of the school to safely cross the road “which they don’t necessarily do.”
“We have a high volume of traffic at the front of the school on a daily basis,” she said, adding pick-up times were exceptionally busy with limited parking.
She was however impressed with Casey Council in being so open to listening to the school.
“They’ve come out, they’ve looked at the parking, they really have for the first time this year really been working very closely with the school which is fabulous but we’re not getting to where we want to be.
“They’re saying we don’t have the numbers to warrant a crossing but they are still working on traffic calming devices.”
A council document stated VicRoads data showed there had been one serious injury accident on Springhill Drive adjacent the school where a child was hit by a car while crossing the road outside of school hours.
The data also revealed a pedestrian suffered a minor injury when a vehicle lost control turning into Silky Oak Drive at the Majestic Boulevard intersection.
