Risky shortcut

By Nicole Williams
PEDESTRIANS are risking their lives trying to shortcut the crossing outside Dandenong Primary School.
Councillor John Kelly wants a protective barrier installed outside the primary school on Foster Street to stop people doing a ‘quick duck across the road’ to the Dandenong Plaza.
“Residents are trying to shortcut the lights by 50 yards. They have a death wish in some cases,” Cr Kelly said.
“When the lights are green, some of the cars coming around there get a bit of pace up.”
“I’m fearful for these people who are trying to run the gauntlet.”
He said a protective barrier is needed on one side or the other to prevent people from risking their lives with the traffic.
While there was previously a crossing right outside the school, old habits must die hard for some residents.
“I have seen a lady with a pusher trying to get across there in peak traffic – if only she had gone 50 yards up to the lights,” Cr Kelly said.
“The more I look at it, the more people I see struggling and it certainly worries me.”
Dandenong Primary School Principal David Crozier said that most people from the school community crossed at the lights but the main issue was the general community who used it as a shortcut to Dandenong Plaza.
“People coming from New Street don’t go to the crossing, they tend to go straight across,” Mr Crozier said.
“If they couldn’t enter the Plaza, they might be forced to the lights.”
Greater Dandenong Engineering Services Director Bruce Rendall said the council was investigating the possibility of installing a barrier at this location.
But council wanted to remind residents that in the interests of pedestrian safety, pedestrian crossings should be used wherever possible.
“It is actually an offence to cross the road within 20 metres of a pedestrian crossing,” Mr Rendall said.