A road safety campaigner has called for urgent action to improve road safety near schools after a Westbury Primary School student was seriously injured in a collision. The incident, captured on CCTV and widely shared on social media, has sparked renewed debate about traffic management in school zones.
President of the Barbados Road Safety Association, Roland Lowe, urged road users to exercise “common sense” and “consideration” when driving near schools.
On Monday, the young student was seriously injured after being knocked down by a vehicle on President Kennedy Drive. Security footage from a nearby building, now circulating on social media, shows the student being violently flung into the air upon impact.
Lowe described the footage as “horrific” and stressed that authorities need to do more to crack down on dangerous driving, particularly in school zones.
“There is not every area [authorities] can tackle, but when a concern has been raised, then you need to address it. Especially when it involves the most vulnerable in our society. When I saw that video it was horrific,” he stressed. “It was hard to look at. We don’t want to see that happening again.”
“If you know you are in an area where school children are, [where] the children are either going to school or coming from school, come on. It does not take much to think that there might be a possibility that a child could be looking to cross the road, and then when you are dealing with young children, they might not always utilise the best practices when it comes to crossing the street. You as the adult need to be taking the responsibility…you should be driving at 40 kilometres an hour [or less] in those zones.”
Lowe suggested that in light of the recent incident, and other reports in recent years of some near misses, the time has come for authorities to re-examine road safety policies for areas around schools, which may include more visible signage for crossings.
He said: “Similar to the crossing in the area when you get to the fisheries [Bridgetown Complex], those types of crossings that have beacons in the air, so that persons can see and know that this is an area where you can expect that you should have to slow down. Those are the types of crossing that should be required in the area of school zones.”
In addition to better infrastructure, Lowe stressed the importance of educating children on how to use crossings properly. “This should be part of after-school activities or even incorporated into class sessions,” he suggested.
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