School community calls for safer crossing

Parents and staff at Vasse Primary School are calling for safer crossing conditions on the Busselton Bypass.

The crossing raised safety concerns for children travelling from the Cambridge subdivision, Broadwater and the Abbey area.

Vasse MLA Libby Mettam said the crossing has been a concern for several years, but road management was a complex issue.

“The issue is essentially the challenge of making a safe crossing for students at a zone which is not in front of the school and is on a busy section of bypass on which drivers are travelling at 60km/h from a high of 110km/h just several kilometres up the road,” she said.

Vasse Primary School P and C applied for Wig-Wag signage, which would see lights added to the existing pedestrian crossing signs located 300m east of the roundabout which joins Busselton Bypass to Bussell Highway.

However, Mrs Mettam said while the school also submitted an application for a guarded children crossing to the Children’s Crossings and Road Safety Committee, it was not supported because of the low number of students utilising the crossing.

Parent Angela Rowe said the school had grown by more than 100 students in the past year and a safer crossing environment would encourage more students to walk and ride their bikes to school.

“One third of the students at Vasse Primary come from Abbey, Cambridge and Broadwater area,” she said.

“So a safer crossing will alleviate traffic at the school and give kids the independence to get to school safely.”

Mrs Mettam said vegetation would also be cleared to improve sight distance for motorists and pedestrians in the area.

“Hopefully these improvements will see an increase in the number of children crossing this road, which will then pave the way for a guarded crossing into the future,” she said.