Bus driver puts up signs to slow traffic

A Dunedin school bus driver compelled to "do something" to improve the safety of the children who take his bus has taken matters into his own hands.

After 10 months of trying to get roading authorities to install reminders for drivers to slow down when passing a school bus along the Outram School bus route, bus driver Ken Schumacher organised the signs himself.

Yesterday he installed them on the fences of sympathetic farmers at either end of Centre Rd.

He said he had been driving the pupils to and from Outram School for a year and every day vehicles sped past the bus while it was stopped for primary school children to get on or off.

By law, motorists must slow to 20kmh when passing stationary school buses.

Centre Rd, from Allanton to Dunedin Airport, is officially Stage Highway 86.

In May the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi told the ODT such signs were not a priority as there were few safety issues around school buses, and, like the Dunedin City Council, said concerns about, and incidents with, speeding drivers should be referred to police as it was an enforcement matter.

DCC group manager transport Jeanine Benson said school buses already carried signs alerting motorists to the legal requirement to slow to 20km/h when passing a stationary school bus.

She also noted there were already informal signs in place asking motorists to slow down when passing school buses in the vicinity of Lee Stream School, west of Outram.

Frustrated, Mr Schumacher decided to do something.

"If you do nothing, you achieve nothing, so I’ve got to do something."

There were four stops along Centre Rd and he looked forward to seeing on Monday, when children returned to school after the holidays, if the signs made a difference.

He said the farmers had been happy for him to put the signs on their fences.

The signs had cost $180 in total, which the Green Island Lions Club had agreed to fund.

"That’s cheap as chips to highlight a bit of safety."

mark.john@odt.co.nz