School ups road safety after pupil is knocked down

3:30pm Tuesday 29th January 2013 in News By Neil Watts

School ups road safety after pupil is knocked down School ups road safety after pupil is knocked down

A WORCESTER school has stepped up its road safety measures after a pupil was knocked down by a car yesterday.

Nunnery Wood High School has changed its staffing rotas to provide extra cover along its driveway off Spetchley Road in response to an 11-year-old boy suffering head and leg injuries after being hit by a car, believed to be a taxi, at about 3.12pm.

The boy was taken to the Worcestershire Royal Hospital for treatment and has been off school today to recover from the incident.

Headteacher, Alun Williams, says increased numbers of staff will be able to keep a closer eye on the students as they leave the premises at the end of the school day.

Mr Williams said: “We have reiterated the importance of being sensible and road safety, such as walking on footpaths and not stepping out.

“We are increasing the number of stuff in that particular area after the school day to make sure the students are on footpaths and not being boisterous.”

Mr Williams added the boy was walking down the drive on the opposite side from the pavement when he appears to have come out in front of the car.

“He is a little dot of a lad and an eye witness has said he was knocked up in the air, so it was nasty enough. Fortunately the taxi was not driving very fast.”

The drive has a five miles per hour speed limit and speed bumps as traffic calming measures.

Resident Keith Burton, speaking for Spetchley Road Area Residents Association, said he continues to worry about the mix of school children, older people and parked cars along the road.

“It highlights the kids have got to keep their wits about them. Where you have the mix of kids, older people and cars parked, the whole situation just worries me.”

He added: “It’s like pulling the one-armed bandit - you might have somebody that is not quite as lucky.”

An ambulance and rapid response vehicle attended the scene along with the police.

Comments(11)

skychip says...
3:44pm Tue 29 Jan 13

When will the authorities take this road seriously and try to alleviate some of the dangers at busy times.

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i-cycle says...
3:59pm Tue 29 Jan 13

20's Plenty?
There is a growing realisation that for residential streets there are lots of benefits for the majority of users in limiting traffic to 20mph. More details on the benefits for walkers,cyclists, residents, the environment and even drivers themselves are to be found at this website www.20splentyforus.o
rg.uk

I'd welcome local residents views on whether we should start to lobby local councillors to introduce a 20mph restriction on Spetchley Road from its junction with London Road.

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jb says...
4:38pm Tue 29 Jan 13

Reading the article the boy was in collision with the vehicle on the school driveway and NOT on Spetchley Road but having recently driven along that road at a busy time I have to say there are many accidents waiting to happen. The amount of children leaving the local high schools and showing no signs that they have any road sense at all is quite shocking, it's all very well the school staff monitoring the driveway but it's when they leave school premises that they are at the higher risk. Maybe bringing back good old road safety talks in school, starting when very young might just help get the message across. I hope the young lad makes a speedy recovery but has learnt a valuable lesson from all this.

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Arthur Blenkinsop says...
4:48pm Tue 29 Jan 13

Teach yougsters to be responsible for their own safety? Whatever next?
(there is no icon for sarcasm! but i fully agree).

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Budweis-her says...
5:37pm Tue 29 Jan 13

My money on the yound lad stepping out in front of the taxi. School kids aren't very streetwise, especially if they're messing about with their mates.

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Thorn1979 says...
9:52pm Tue 29 Jan 13

I cycle this route sometimes at school-run time. The kids gleefully step into the gutter without looking, and I'm prepared for that - I expect it from silly children. But what I hate is the adults that open their car doors without looking, don't indicate, pull out without looking both ways, overtake inappropriately, cut me up to make a turn into the school driveway...

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MrThirsty247 says...
1:27pm Wed 30 Jan 13

@Thorn1979 - I completely agree. On my normal morning commute by car, I often see both children and parents meandering on and off the pavement like the road is PART of the pavement.I mean they really need to take more responsibility for themselves! Its STILL a road with big, heavy dangerous cars..walking on the road, flinging car doors open whilst parking on curbs is not the right thing to teach kids. If you were a biker and you got hit by a car door?...it would be bad news.
These 20mph zone are good but have now had the reverse effect that in the roads are now deemed so safe and don't pose a serious danger that people treat them as extended pavements! Both sides need to watch out for each other here.

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i-cycle says...
1:37pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Better still, why don't parents and the school encourage more pupils to cycle or walk to school. With growing concerns over obesity of our young people it would build in the exercise they need each day to keep healthy. It would also significantly reduce traffic and parking problems in the school run which in turn would make it safer for more to walk or cycle to school. Add in local pressure to limit speeds to 20mph and the risk of serious injury for pedestrians, cyclist and drivers would decrease significantly. All in all a much more pleasant and social environment.

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DarrenM says...
5:59pm Wed 30 Jan 13

most of the speeders are people going to County Hall - If the Spetchley Road entrance to County Hall was blocked off it wouldn't be a problem.

Also is there something wrong with the Worcester News, We haven't had a press release from some non-entity in Rodneys Speed Camera Partnership lately?

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pinkfluff says...
9:56pm Wed 30 Jan 13

DarrenM wrote:
most of the speeders are people going to County Hall - If the Spetchley Road entrance to County Hall was blocked off it wouldn't be a problem.

Also is there something wrong with the Worcester News, We haven't had a press release from some non-entity in Rodneys Speed Camera Partnership lately?
What? Did you do a survey or is this yet another lame pop at WCC?

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NuserMane says...
4:21pm Thu 7 Feb 13

The boy did NOT walk in front of the taxi. One taxi driver stopped to let him cross, another taxi driver took his eyes off the road and put his foot on the pedal. If you ask him, eye-witnesses, the hospital or even the headteacher himself he can confirm this. Nunnery is a very big school with a very small drive, something which prompted their decision to ban cars from driving into the drive from 3:05 - 4:00. That was put into place two years ago and was broken the following day when cars decided to run over the warning signs instead of backing out of the drive. This is not to do with the street smarts of school children, it's to do with the drivers who ignore the fact there are 1300 kids leaving that school at the same time and think that they're entitled to park at the school entrance.

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