Big rigs fear

Cardinia TMU Leading Senior Constable John Morton, left, and Leading Senior Constable Peter Henderson want drivers to slow down in rural areas.Cardinia TMU Leading Senior Constable John Morton, left, and Leading Senior Constable Peter Henderson want drivers to slow down in rural areas.

By Melissa Meehan
CHILDREN have been banned from playing near schoolyard fences to protect them from speeding construction industry trucks.
Bayles Regional and Cardinia primary schools have implemented safety programs to save their students from rampaging rigs which have terrified local residents since work on the desalination plant started.
Bayles Regional school principal Nicole Bottriell said he had been forced to ban students from playing at the school fence-line because trucks continued to ignore the speed limit.
She said during yesterday’s lunch break alone, her students had counted more than 30 trucks.
“I came back to the school at lunch yesterday and thought to myself that the speeding trucks could cause an accident,” she said.
“I announced at the school assembly that the kids were not to play at the front fence and then two hours later I hear that one of our parents had been involved in an accident.”
Marg Winning, a parent at the school, was on her way to pick up her children at 2.30pm along Koow-eerup–Longwarry Road when she witnessed the true terror of trucks going too fast and losing control.
“I was driving towards Bayles and a truck, from the desalination works, pulled out in front of me and sped ahead,” Ms Winning said.
“Then I could see another truck coming the other way – neither of them slowed down even though it’s a narrow road and as one moved aside, without slowing down, so the other could pass, it lost control.
The next thing Ms Winning saw was the truck’s second trailer swinging across the road with the truck barrelling out of control.
“Luckily I was far away enough to move onto the side of the road but by the time the truck stopped, with its load all over the road and the trailer twisted, I wasn’t that far away,” she said.
“It was terrifying.”
Cardinia Primary School principal Alan Armstrong said he, like other schools in the area had contacted police with their concerns.
“It has been a constant thing forever and a day,” he said.
“But for us it’s not just trucks, but cars too.
“People seem to think ignoring the speed signs is OK.”
He said the increased traffic, caused by desalination works, roadworks, and construction on school grounds had been a big worry for all at the school.
Students can now only cross with a crossing supervisor at Ballarto Road or with an adult at Cardinia Road.
“We now have a teacher on duty at the Cardinia Road gates, all students know they cannot cross there without an adult,” he said.
“So far no-one has been hit outside the school, but it is a concern.”
On Friday the Cardinia Traffic Management Unit (TMW) patrolled the area outside the Cardinia Primary School between 2.30pm and 4pm.
Their presence resulted in two drivers losing their licences, one truck driver being fined for driving while on a mobile telephone and another for not wearing a seat belt.
One driver, a 23-year-old from Kooweerup, lost seven demerit points for driving at 30 kilometres per hour over the speed limit in an unregistered vehicle, resulting in more than $1000 worth of fines.
Further down the road, outside the desalination works two others lost their licences for driving up to 47 kilometres over the speed limit.
Leading Senior Constable Peter Henderson said police would continue to patrol areas outside schools and other areas that had been raised as a point of concern for locals.
“People need to treat these areas as if it’s their own home town,” he said.
“Slow down and obey the road laws.”
He said police were serious about enforcing 40 kilometre zones in school areas as well as roadwork sites.