19 October 2011

Brake, the road safety charity
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Zak the Zebra, mascot of national road safety charity Brake, is visiting Ponteland, Northumberland, to back a campaign for safer roads around two local schools to protect children and other local residents.

Thanks to sponsorship from Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services, Zak will be supporting concerned families in Ponteland, who have organised a protest on 19 October. They are demanding action from the council to tackle the chaotic influx of traffic at school opening and closing times and to prevent dangerous driving and parking on pavements around local schools. Parents and teachers live in fear that a child could be seriously injured or killed on Thornhill Road, where both Ponteland First School and Coates Middle School are situated.

In the meantime the campaigners are calling on local drivers, including parents dropping their children at school, to slow down to 20mph or below in the community, and not park on pavements or perform dangerous manoeuvres.

The campaign so far:

Janet Dakers, local parent, has been raising awareness of the dangerous situation outside the schools for more than a year and has spoken out in news articles in their local magazine. She has gathered support for the campaign from the schools, local councillor Richard Dodd and MP Guy Opperman.

Ponteland First School and Coates Middle School are in a small village, but take in children from a much wider area, leading to congestion and parking difficulties that are making the roads around the schools unsafe. The campaigners report that parking on pavements, dangerous U-turns at the school gates, and speeding are common on the road. Many drivers also fail to stop at the designated crossing, which had led to calls for the council to provide a lollipop person.

According to campaigners, there have been 12 incidents where children have narrowly avoided being hit by a vehicle. Twice every day there are more than 40 cars parked on pavements outside the schools. Residents and parents want action now to prevent a child being hurt or killed and are demanding that Northumberland County Council urgently finds a solution to the situation.

The campaigners favour the development of a park and ride system for pupils. The council stated that this would be too expensive, which has outraged campaigners who argue that you cannot place a price tag on a child's life. The second proposed solution is to install bollards on Thornhill Road, and to make the roads around Ponteland First School and Coates Middle School restricted parking so only residents may park there. However, this would not address the issue of congestion or risky driving.

Janet Dakers, concerned parent, social worker and campaigner, said: "It is good luck and not good management that a child has not already been seriously injured or killed because of this appalling situation. I believe as a community we need to stand up to the council, who are responsible for resolving the problems that are endangering children around our schools. We demand that a comprehensive risk assessment is completed as there have been 12 near miss incidents on Thornhill Road already. Northumberland County Council should review how many cars are travelling into Ponteland each day and make sure there are appropriate provisions in place to allow children to get to school safely. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done now!"

Julie Townsend, campaigns director at Brake, said: "It is vital that councils work with schools to ensure children can get there safely and sustainably. This is about understanding the needs of local families and ensuring that children's lives aren't being endangered because of a failure to establish safe routes to school. That means ensuring road engineering and enforcement measures are in place to prevent dangerous driving around schools and in communities. And it's also about engaging families and schools to enable more sustainable transport options. Clearly families in Ponteland are desperately concerned – we hope that the council listen to their fears and gets a grip on this dismal situation before an innocent child is hurt or killed."

"Anyone concerned about children's safety on roads can contact Zak the Zebra at www.zakthezebra.org for advice."

129 children (aged 0-17) were killed on UK roads in 2010 and 3,628 more suffered serious injuries. The majority of these children (58%) were on foot or bicycle at the time [1]. Brake works with communities to help prevent these needless casualties, and provides support to the families devastated by them.

If you're concerned about a dangerous road, Zak the Zebra can help. Thanks to sponsorship from Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services, Brake's Zak the Zebra costume can be borrowed for a limited number of road safety campaigns. Tell Zak about your dangerous road or road safety campaign by completing our online form at www.zakthezebra.org, or calling Zak's hotline on 08000 687780, kindly operated by Irwin Mitchell Solicitors (open 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-4pm Saturdays). You'll get access to a free online Zak Pack full of advice on setting up a community campaign to improve road safety.

Steve Farmer, Managing Director at Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services, says: "We are proud to be working with Brake to support community campaigns for safer roads. These campaigns are so important – local people fighting to prevent needless deaths and serious injuries on our roads, which devastate too many lives. By supporting Brake's Zak the Zebra campaign mascot we hope we can help people on the front line who are campaigning to make our roads safer for everyone".

Go to www.brake.org.uk to find out more about Brake's campaigns to improve community road safety.

[1] Road Casualties Great Britain 2010, Department for Transport, 2011; and Reported Injury Road Traffic Collisions & Casualties, Police Service of Northern Ireland, 2010