The Ministry of Education\u2019s proposal to axe many Queenstown school bus routes risks children\u2019s safety, former local cop\/ex-councillor Chris Blackford says.<\/p>\n
From the start of next year, the ministry has advised local schools, students should instead be taking public buses where a “suitable” service is available.<\/p>\n
Blackford, eight of whose 10 grandchildren attend local schools, says “seeing something so bloody stupid as to remove these school buses, beggars belief”.<\/p>\n
“I can just see some disasters looming.”<\/p>\n
Presently, motorists by law can only pass stationary school buses, in either direction, at 20kmh.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s ignored, to a large extent, especially on Frankton Rd, but it is still a good move.”<\/p>\n
Blackford says he\u2019s concerned about kids getting off Orbus buses in semi-rural areas with higher speed limits.<\/p>\n
“Children cannot estimate the speed of vehicles approaching them.<\/p>\n
“If somebody drops a ball at a bus stop, a kid is going to race after that ball, or some other kids are going to race after that ball, they don\u2019t know about traffic.”<\/p>\n
Blackford, who\u2019s been involved in many projects to improve children\u2019s safety since arriving in town in 1982, recalls in the \u201980s an eight-year-old was killed by a car after getting off a bus on Frankton Rd outside what\u2019s now Copthorne Lakeview hotel.<\/p>\n
“It demonstrates the vulnerability of children getting off buses.”<\/p>\n
In addition, noting his youngest grandchild is six, he asks “would you trust your six-year-old to sit among a bunch of adults who you don\u2019t know?”<\/p>\n
“Absolutely not.”<\/p>\n
In the face of the ministry’s keenness to remove school bus services, Blackford suggests public buses carrying lots of students between 3pm and 4pm could have school bus signs put on them \u2014 “it\u2019ll just give people that warning”.<\/p>\n
He also floats the idea of rerouting public buses past schools before and after each school day.<\/p>\n
The ministry, he adds, “should not make any moves whatsoever until a sensible outcome is achieved”.<\/p>\n