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SCHOOL children from St Mary’s Primary School in Fivemiletown have called on Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins to take urgent action on road safety, writes Charlotte McCutcheon.
The young pupils have been speaking out about their concerns over dangerous traffic conditions outside their school. Situated on the busy main Belfast Road, vehicles regularly pass the school while significantly over the 30mph limit, and there have been several reports of ‘near misses’ outside the school.
Given its proximity to the national speed limit, traffic is often accelerating out of the village, and failing to slow down sufficiently when approaching the school. Police speed detectors have recorded readings of up to 75mph at peak drop off and pick up times in the village.
This has caused growing fears among staff and parents, and also among the pupils themselves.
Thomas from P7 said, “We can see the cars speeding by from the playground at break times, and when our parents are collecting us and our friends are getting on the school buses it’s really scary sometimes when you see people going by so fast. We’ve learned a lot about road safety but I’m worried that the younger ones might not know how important it is to be safe and stay by the gates.”
Joshua, from P6, added, “It’s scary when you’re trying to get into the car and the big jeeps and lorries are rushing by and it makes me worry if they hit me or the car then someone could be really badly hurt.”
Mairaid Kelly, chair of the Board of Governors, said, “We’ve been raising our concerns about the lack of adequate road safety measures outside our school for some time, and while we understand we’re on a list somewhere in a department to be considered, it’s hard to convey how dangerous this situation is unless you see it for yourself.
“That’s why we’ve invited the Minister for Infrastructure to visit our school herself and witness the volume and speed of traffic.”
