Recent research from road safety experts has concluded all school zones in the ACT should have a 30 kilometre per hour speed limit. It's the key recommendation in a report that urges a significant shake-up to school zones and the rules that govern them.
00:04Like countless young families across the ACT, Veronica Fortune and her children love walking
00:09to school.
00:10They get to run into friends as they go along and they know their neighbourhood quite well
00:15and confidently because of that.
00:18But there are dangers.
00:19The biggest one is the traffic at drop-off and pick-up times and drivers who don't obey
00:23the laws.
00:26I've had a near mess myself.
00:27My son was going a bit quickly through the crossing up there.
00:30Thankfully I had my sons in a pram at that time and my daughter was standing right next
00:34to me.
00:35But they're supposed to stop at those crossings when the flags are out.
00:38They didn't.
00:39She wrote to the government asking for a series of changes that would reduce the risks.
00:44Speed bumps are not close enough to the crossing and we may need more of them.
00:49A wombat crossing at the crossing would really help because it would force cars to slow down
00:54right before they got to where children are.
00:57In terms of their physical size they're a lot smaller and so they're at a much greater
01:02risk for serious injury.
01:03James Thompson is an expert in road safety.
01:06His team's recent research focused on school zones across the ACT, finding that more than
01:11a third of drivers exceeded 40 kilometres per hour during school zone times.
01:16But it also went up to almost 50% of vehicles were speeding through the school zones.
01:21When the default speed limit that applies outside of school times was 60 kilometres, yes, it
01:26was almost 50% of drivers were speeding through the school zones.
01:29Dr Thompson is adamant the ACT's current school zone speed settings don't sufficiently protect anyone, let alone a child.
01:36A pedestrian, you're hit by a vehicle at 30 kilometres or greater, you're at a very high risk of being seriously
01:44or fatally injured.
01:45But if you're hit under 30 kilometres you have a pretty good chance of surviving.
01:50The report on ACT school zones recommends several changes.
01:53The key is to make all school zone speed limits 30 kilometres per hour.
01:58Extending time limits 7am to 5pm instead of 8am to 4pm is also recommended to protect children at before and after school care.
02:07Speed bumps, electronic signs and clearly marked crossings are suggested at all schools from kindergarten to year 12.
02:14Parents are too worried about letting their children walk around here because there's no crossings.
02:18Ann Cleary recently led a project with St Clair's College community asking what risks the students and their families faced.
02:25So we have 800 family groups who come to our school and of those 200 responded to a survey.
02:31That's a huge response.
02:33What they expressed to us was the dangers in student movement around the school and not just Canberra Avenue where we had that terrible accident and has been a focus of attention.
02:43Dr Cleary thinks families would support a 30 kilometre school zone limit and extended times.
02:48But she says speed limits on the roads around St Clair's also need to be reduced as part of a broader suite of structural improvements.
02:56You can make our school zone 30 but if you're still coming off a 60k road the chances are you're still going to be exceeding the speed limit and if you drop this one probably just exceeding it at a higher speed.
03:08The ACT Government wasn't available for interview to discuss possible school zone changes.
03:13In a statement a spokesperson said
03:15The ACT Government welcomes the outcomes of the research and will consider future actions as part of the current development of the next ACT Road Safety Strategy.
03:25So will drivers accept these changes and the possible inconvenience that comes with them?
03:30I think it would make a huge difference because it would make the area more welcoming to pedestrians.
03:36The public if you explain to them what's at risk and what can be gained by improving the safety of school zones they would absolutely get on board with it.
03:43You know when are we going to start taking the safety of school children seriously?
