Zayne Crotty, who is in Year 4 at Karuah PS, addressed a Karuah Progress Association meeting on Wednesday 26 March.

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Attending the meeting with his mother Cheryl, Zayne made his case in front of two Port Stephens councillors, one MidCoast councillor, and a Federal Election candidate.

“This is an important safety matter for local residents and especially schoolchildren who cross this street every day to attend school,” Zayne said.

“As a student who lives on the north side of the bridge, I cross at this street every morning and afternoon, and often have to wait for all the parents who pick their children up by car to use this street as a turnaround point through Memorial Park.

“There is also poor visibility to see the cars approaching from the south along Tarean Road, in part due to the new black school fence.”

Zayne’s appeal included photographs of the corner in question, as well as a detailed map of the crossing point.

He said it meets the essential requirements for a pedestrian crossing.

These being that Memorial Drive is a two-way street with one lane of traffic in each direction, the speed limit is 50km/h (40km/h school zone), and it is not an arterial road.

School-zone traffic brings a large volume of cars during afternoon pick-up, but there is no other place to cross to get onto the bridge footpath, which students like Zayne use to get home across the river.

Zayne has counted on average up to 14 cars turning from Taren Road to Memorial Drive, all of which chose to loop through Memorial Park and back onto Tarean Road, doubling the traffic at the corner adjacent to the school.

“I hope that the Council will appreciate the urgent need to deal with the safety problem, and I would like to offer a meeting at the crossing point with the relevant councillors to assess the situation and proposed crossing.”

Road markings, maintenance and new zones and crossings must be signed off by both state and local levels of government in NSW, and often the best way to bring a road issue to light is to contact the Local Traffic Committee of a given area’s local council, or through the council’s report and request functions on their websites.

By Thomas O’KEEFE