Road safety in focus for Korumburra

SCHOOL crossing safety in Korumburra and related traffic management are the focus of a current South Gippsland Shire Council investigation.

It is hoped the investigation will resolve safety concerns for the town’s primary school students, including groups of youngsters being walked between Karmai Children’s Centre and the schools.

A council spokesperson outlined the aims of the investigation.

They are to identify preferred school drop off and pick up locations, explore the possibility of a new school crossing for students and parents crossing Princes Street, and develop concept designs for pedestrian and traffic management to improve safety along the Princes Street school precinct.

The investigation was sparked by concerns raised regarding a perceived unsafe drop off/pick up parking zone and pedestrian crossing point, increased turning traffic, both buses and cars, and speeding vehicles using Princes Street as a town bypass.

“The project will seek to actively engage with school communities, local residents and businesses, bus operators, emergency services, and the wider community to gain insights into local and school traffic,” the spokesperson said.

Karmai Children’s Centre operational manager Sue Ritchie is encouraged by the study, being keen to see safety improvements for its ‘walking bus’ groups between the centre and the town’s primary schools and kindergarten.

“We are working with them through the process,” Sue said of council, acknowledging those at the centre are keen to see action to improve safety as soon as possible.

While she said the Children’s Centre has previously made suggestions to council, such as potentially moving one of the school crossings down the hill to create greater visibility, she supports the need for expert assessment to ensure measures implemented are practical. 

“We’re not engineers,” she said, conceding those at Karmai and the schools don’t have the expertise to know exactly what is feasible.

Korumburra Primary School principal Nathan Pirouet also envisages the possibility of a crossing in a new location, while acknowledging you can only have them in so many places.

“We’ve got families that have kids at both of our schools, the kinder and here, and they’re crossing over on that busy road where cars get up a bit of speed, and they’re walking prams across the road there,” Nathan said.

“It’s too far out of the way to go up to the corner, so humans being humans, they don’t go up there.”

Nathan said it would make sense to have a crossing where many people are already crossing, given the much larger school population at KPS.

He stressed that he is not forgetting St Joseph’s Primary School and the need to ensure safety for its students.

“When the Korumburra Children’s Centre was being planned out, there was a promise traffic management infrastructure would be put in, and our observation is there’s been nothing,” Nathan said.

“For us, it’s just a safety thing; we’ve noticed near misses and speeding cars and our families trying to cross the road in that environment.”

In the short term, the KPS principal would like to see digital speed signs.

Sue of Karmai acknowledged safety measures have been taken in response to some of the concerns raised.

“Some of the temporary solutions we asked to get put in did, like more signage to say that it was a school crossing area,” she said.

While she would like to see afternoon speed limit reductions extended beyond 4pm, she acknowledges that is not something that can be implemented at a local level, with Regional Roads Victoria determining those requirements.

The council spokesperson stressed that school crossings are for schoolchildren, not for preschool children, who are considered to need even closer supervision.

Walking Bus safety 

SENTINEL-TIMES joined Karmai Children’s Centre operational manager Sue Ritchie and other Karmai staff as they walked a group of enthusiastic young students from the Children’s Centre to the town’s two primary schools on Friday morning.

The entire group had to negotiate the Princes Street crossing nearest their centre, doing so with the assistance of attentive crossing supervisor David Barker, who spoke of the concerns posed by limited visibility uphill from the crossing.

“You don’t know how fast they’re coming over the hill and people build up speed as they do so,” David said, adding he listens keenly for trucks, letting them go if possible before attempting to halt traffic.

Sue mentioned a couple of near accidents that occurred approximately a year-and-a-half ago.

“One involved the gentleman who is the crossing supervisor and the other a couple of our educators and children,” she said, noting that on those occasions drivers had to brake heavily.

Joanna Lomagno was in charge of the crossing around the corner, helping young St Joseph’s Primary School student Eleanor and Sue cross safely to the school.

Sue highlighted the possibility of adding an additional crossing over Guys Road for St Joseph’s students and parents walking between there and the nearby housing estate.

South Gippsland Shire Council is currently undertaking an investigation to improve pedestrian safety in the Princes Street education precinct.