By Marcus Uhe
Students at Cranbourne South Primary School had a very important guest join them on their morning walk to school on Friday 20 May.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Glenn Weir accompanied the children and school Principal Monique Corcoran as they crossed Browns Road and Pearcedale Road to mark National Walk Safely to School Day.
National Walk Safely to School day came during National Road Safety Week, an annual initiative from the Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) Group, partnering with road safety organisations and Government to highlight the impact of road trauma and ways to reduce it.
“We’ve seen an uplift in pedestrian fatalities this year and we’ve really got to make sure we look after our most vulnerable citizens, our community that walk to school,” Assistant Commissioner Weir said.
“We’re concerned this trend will continue as we head into the winter months when it gets darker earlier and visibility is reduced. That’s why we’re making pedestrian safety a focus as part of National Road Safety Week.
“Kids have had a really disrupted two years as we know through the pandemic so the ability for them to know safe practices in and around road areas walking to school, the ability for drivers to really concentrate in areas of high risk such as school zones, is vital to us.
“And the ability of motorists to realise where they are, and that are little people, vulnerable people who use the roads every day, is something we’re really keen to make sure we enforce.
“We want to keep people safe, our community safe on Victorian roads, from our elderly to our most junior kids. I please just ask everyone to slow down and be aware of the circumstances and parents; teach your kids good habits.”
Ms Corcoran said she was pleased to see her students take the opportunity to get some morning exercise but urged them to be responsible while they do so.
“Here at Cranbourne South we really love (for students) to be able to come from Botanic Ridge, right through and be able to start their school day after being active in the morning,” Ms Corcoran said.
“Please be careful on the roads. We know it’s really busy, with car-parking and movement or traffic and trucks that come through, so please just be really careful.”
State-wide, 15 pedestrians have died on Victoria’s roads this year compared with six at the same time last year more than 1200 pedestrians were injured last year alone, according to Victoria Police.
Assistant Commissioner Weir said the onus falls on everybody to be safe on the roads.
“We can’t be everywhere at all times, we need people to take responsibility for their actions, be that drivers, pedestrians or any other road user.
“The last thing we want to do is enforce all the time to make sure people do the right thing. People have got a responsibility to make sure that if you’re using the road in a car bike scooter or pedestrian you’ve got to look after your own behaviour.”
