A primary-aged student, concerned about accidents outside of his rural south Auckland school, is urging local politicians to lower the speed limit.
Presenting a petition to the Franklin Local Board through board member Gary Holmes, Caio Maffey said something needed to be done about speeding.
The 9-year-old was a student at Awhitu District School, and started a petition for speed reduction measures on the 60km/hr rural road which didn’t have restrictions during school hours.
“There have already been car accidents outside the gate,” Caio said. “I think that if we put speed bumps outside the gate, cars will have to slow down and it will make it safer for kids and parents.”
He said he was going to present his petition to his Auckland Council representatives and members of Parliament.
In a letter of support to Maffey’s petition, Awhitu District School principal Megan Allen said the current speed limit was “much too high”.
“[It] poses a significant risk to the safety of our tamariki, whanau and staff,” Allen said.
The school was concerned about the danger to vehicles reversing out onto the main road, and the safety of students during drop off and pick-ups.
Allen said they were also concerned about safety of students who crossed the road.
“We strongly urge that measures to reduce the speed of vehicles — at least during peak hours — be urgently investigated and implemented.
“These measures are crucial to ensuring the safety of everyone in our school community.”
Allen said the school had not been successful with efforts to raise awareness and address the issue in the past.
She pleaded with the local board for support and to advocate on the school’s behalf.
‘You’ve got to encourage that’
Board member Holmes said Maffey’s mother got in touch with him, for guidance about what they could do about the speeding issue.
“My advice was to bring it to the local board as a petition, to make local board members aware of the issue,” Holmes said.
“When I heard what he was doing, and how young he was, I said, ‘you got to encourage that’. I was pleased he was able to get his petition out there.”
Holmes said speeding was an issue for a lot of rural schools.
“While governments are playing around with speed limits, they are working on variables of speeding limits outside of schools.”
Franklin Local Board chair Angela Fulljames thanked Maffey for his petition and said the board looked forward to seeing it progress.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
