‘It’s like putting the onus back on the children to keep themselves safe’

Traffic calming measures are urgently needed outside a school on a busy road in Laytown.

Sinn Fein Cllr Maria White put forward a motion at October's Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District meeting calling on Meath Co Council Road Safety Officer and engineers to assess traffic hazards at Scoil an Spioriad Naoimh, Senior Primary, Tara Road in Laytown and provide solutions.

In their response, Meath Co Council said that the Road Safety Officer could undertake an observational assessment of the schools during drop off and collection points and following this, a specific awareness and educational talk to the schools, however Cllr White said that this does not go far enough.

“It feels a little like putting the onus back on the children in the school to keep themselves safe,” said White.

“It is a very busy road with an ever increasing volume of cars, an ever increasing case of speed of cars and what I have been hearing from constituents and from those at the school is that driver behaviour is a big issue with people on phones and putting makeup on in the car and all kinds of crazy behaviour going on while they are driving,” she added.

“So unfortunately I don't think an educational talk will protect the school going children. Some children are very vulnerable, there are three autism classes and some children having learning difficulties.”

Bollards outside a section of the school would be beneficial according to White who said:

“There is inaccessibility on the footpaths due to cars parking on the paths, I think it is essential that the bollards are installed.

“Only a few months ago, a vast number of bollards were placed on the Golf Links road to prevent cars from parking there. This is a stretch of road where hundreds of children are coming and going so surely their safety should be prioritised. So, I would be calling on Meath Co Council to go a little bit further in the measures they are thinking about for this situation. There has been two crashes on that stretch of road, right outside the school very recently and it has the community quite worried and rightly so.

Independent Cllr Carol Lennon said:

“There are over 1,000 pupils on those three schools in that area that can't be safely accessed. The footpaths are not wide enough for the volume, the road is particularly wide and there is no safe way of crossing so urgent action is needed to ensure safety of students.

Fine Gael Cllr Sharon Tolan said accidents have been rife at this spot in recent times.

“A number of accidents have occurred at that location and I know that before the lights were even turned on they were knocked down, totally ploughed out of it by a vehicle and it really is a concern for parents that want to give their children going to a senior primary school the confidence to be able to do what all kids should be able to do, walk or cycle to school.

“But it is a really dangerous spot, it is a very straight stretch of road so vehicles do tend to pick up speed and I don't see why we wouldn't hold back and just install a safety barrier at least on that section of footpath closest to the pedestrian crossing just to make sure that kids are shepherded and safe from vehicles while they are waiting to cross the road.”

Meath Co Council added in their response that the recent delivery of the Tara Road had provided active travel infrastructure in the vicinity of the schools, raised zebra crossings on the four arms of the roundabout and outside Colaiste Na hInse and a push button pedestrian crossing also located in front of Scoil An Spoiraid Naomh.

“Additionally there are drop off zones and parking within the school grounds, school bus bays and drop off zone on the link road between the R150 and L5632 which also has three ramps, a zebra crossing and push button crossing.

“The Tara Road car park is available for school drop offs/collections and has courtesy crossings through the car park. Advance school warning signs, including electronic signage is in place at the schools, this can be checked to make sure signs are visible in good condition and in the case of the electronic signage, working correctly.”