Parents and guardians of school children in Coogee, here’s another opportunity for you to voice your concerns. The 2021 school safety survey has been launched to help local government officials come up with improvements to benefit the community.
Every parent has a school safety concern because they want their children to remain protected in their learning environment when the mums or dads are not around. In 2020, local officials learned that the biggest school safety concern for Coogee parents was how vehicle speed could impact the safety of road crossings.
Member for Coogee Marjorie O’Neill has been working to reduce vehicle speed at school zones upon learning of the survey’s outcome.
“At 50km per hour, a vehicle takes approximately 37m to stop, at 40km per hour, it can stop in 27m,” Ms O’Neill shared on Facebook.
“If a pedestrian is hit by a car at 50km per hour, they may only have a 10% chance of survival where as at 40km per hour, their chance of survival goes up to 60%,
“Statistics like these, provided by Transport for NSW, make clear that lower speeds on local roads will make commuting safer for vehicles and pedestrians alike.”
It comes as Waverley Council announced that neighbourhood streets in their southern areas will now enforce a reduced speed of 40km/h, from 50km/h effective immediately. These streets are also accessible to Coogee locals.
Whilst Ms O’Niell agrees that all eastern suburbs roads should have a uniform speed as a matter of state policy, she continues to lobby for the parents’ concern.
The public is encouraged to answer the Coogee School Safety Survey 2021 her office has prepared online.
“I want to help identify and remedy the new obstacles that local families are facing, as well as continue our work toward solving the inherent problems along our local school commutes,” Ms O’ Neill said.
