By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
PARENTS and children are finding pick-up and drop-off time at Dandenong West Preschool more than a handful.
Lucy, the preschool’s manager, says a crossing is needed to traverse Fifth Avenue, which is at times crammed with moving, parked and double-parked cars. Directly across the avenue is a day care centre.
Lucy estimates about 80 per cent of pupils arrive by car, but there is also plenty of fast through traffic to Dandenong.
She has installed a ‘Slow for children’ sign on the preschool’s fence and placed cautionary notes in a parents’ newsletter.
“But we’ve also got to get the rest of the community driving by to acknowledge we’re here,” she said. “I’ve seen mothers with three or more young children try to cross the road. They haven’t got enough hands to control them.”
In one close shave, a toddler got out on the road as a mother was unfastening a baby from a car’s harness. In that case, a car braked just in time to avert tragedy, Lucy said.
She says that in recent years she has unsuccessfully lobbied Greater Dandenong Council to install a pedestrian crossing. “We’ve been told we can’t even put speed humps in because the street is needed for access by fire engines.”
The matter was most recently brought up at a council meeting’s public question time by election candidate Matthew Kirwan.
The council responded that the traffic volume was “lower than normal levels required to support a formal pedestrian crossing”.
Engineering services director Bruce Rendell said the council would discuss road safety directly with the preschool.
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