'Outrageous" situation at Trim school

Parents of children attending Boyne Community School in Trim are calling on Meath County Council to carry out a safety audit at the school in the wake of an accident where a boy was knocked off his bicycle outside the school. The 14-year-old boy was crossing the road on his bicycle on the last day of the school term when he was in collision with a car. Fortunately, he avoided serious injury, though he was shocked and shaken by the ordeal. The only entrance to the school is located on a bend on the busy Trim-Dublin Road and safety concerns have been raised for many years about the dangers of the entrance and the school has been calling for an alternative entrance at the rear of the premises, coming onto the town"s ring road. The incident where the young boy was knocked down has once again highlighted the dangers and the school"s parents" association wants improved safety measures in place before the students return to school in September. Attracta Doran, chairperson of the secondary school"s parents" association, said they had written to the councillors a number of times on the issue with 'no result'. She said they would be sending another letter to the council seeking a safety audit at the school. 'We have all made suggestions as to what should be done to make safe what is there, but we are not qualified to decide what is best. We are requesting the council to do a safety audit to see what is the best way to proceed. Where it is, the bend is so dangerous and we are concerned for the kids,' she said. Mrs Doran described the situation at the school as 'chaotic' but pointed out that some of the worst culprits are parents which, she added, goes for all schools. She said: 'Some parents drive up and feel they have the right to abandon their cars wherever they want, regardless of other users.' She also said there is nowhere for children to safely cross the road and that motorists don"t expect there to be a school where it is located. 'We feel the entrance shouldn"t be there. It should be around the back. We are told it can"t be done, but there is a way around everything,' she said. Mrs Doran said they had talked a few things through but that 'the bottom line is the entrance should not be where it is'. School principal Cora Dunne said the school sought planning permission for an alternative entrance in the 1990s and that the entrance is 'still an issue and has not been addressed'. She added that the school will have 600 students in September and was built for roughly 800. She said that they knew back in 1994 that they would be coming in off the main Dublin Road and that this was the only access, but that nothing has been done to improve the situation. Ms Dunne said that when the land was acquired for the adjacent TIDE Centre and creche that provision should have been made for a new school entrance at that stage. She said it was an 'outrageous' situation and that a child had been knocked off his bicycle and asked how serious it had to get before something was done. 'This is a big school and it is not good enough that the entrance is off the main road. A back entrance is needed and it should have been done,' said Ms Dunne, who said she believed that children were being put at risk. It is proposed that a barrier be put in place to prevent parents driving in and out of the school entrance from September. The principal said it was not safe for pedestrians and cars to be using the same entrance. She added she 'cannot control what is happening outside the entrance but can address what happens inside the gate'.