Children having to cross busy highway alone as crosswalk attendant leaves early
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Everybody loves the lollipop person. Traffic Wardens were always kind to us as we walked to school each day, and they do a very important job keeping our children safe as they cross busy streets on their way to a fun (jk) day at school.
However, parents want to be assured that the attendants are in fact there doing their job when the kids need them.
There is a busy crossing near Ackland Rd and the Brand Highway, and a concerned member of the public brought to our attention earlier in the week that the attendant is usually packing up at 3:25pm each day.
We checked with the Traffic Warden department of the WA police, and they confirmed with us that the area is meant to be manned until 3:45pm each weekday, which would make sense given that it would take some children about half an hour to make their way to that spot from Tarcoola Primary School.
A couple of days ago, a young girl about 8 years old had to ride her bike across the street unassisted at about 3:25 and the attendant was already in her car off to collect the signage.
Mornings are also an issue, as we have been informed that the crossing should be attended until 8:45am but it has been seen unattended at 8:30am.
Complaints have already been made, and we have reached out to the local police (who manage the crossings) and the traffic warden department in Perth, but have not had a formal response yet.
Nobody wants to name and shame someone, but one member of the public tells us they alerted authorities to the issue back in February, but has still seen nothing change and still regularly observes the crossing unattended by 8:30 in the mornings, and 3:25 in the afternoons, and often sees children trying to cross the street alone.
Just today, while the attendant walked to get the flags a child crossed the first half of the highway alone on a bike. As she returned to her car the child was in the middle of the highway. The child was not then assisted across the street, but the attendant chose to simply depart in her vehicle. The picture above was taken today of the attendant leaving, at 3:33pm (picture has been timestamped).
The picture below is the crossing children must negotiate often on their own.
We would like to state that this is most likely an isolated problem as we have not had any complaints about other children's crossings in Geraldton.
