HOT shot drivers have been urged to cool it with new signs outside a dale primary school.
A child has being clipped by a car and there have been two accidents at Oaks Bank, outside Ramshaw Primary School.
Now Evenwood’s county councillors Heather Smith and Stephen Hugill have teamed up to fund two flashing signs to get drivers to ease off the accelerator.
The pair have given £4,750 each from their neighbourhood budgets for the signs, which will operate at drop off and pick up times at the top and bottom of the bank.
Cllr Smith said a parent had requested the signs following a number of near misses on the stretch.
She added: “The [county] council have put 20mph limits in front of some schools and they’re doing another 50 this year.
“But there is a scoring system devised by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) and we were nowhere near the top 50.
“So we decided to use our funds for a sign to try to slow the traffic that comes belting down Oaks Bank – including big wagons.”
Cllr Hugill said a lot of commercial vehicles used the road because of the “chaos” in Toft Hill.
“It’s all about the speed,” he added.
A driver suffered minor injuries after crashing into a telegraph pole and railings outside the school last month.
And Ramshaw Primary School has changed its drop off and pick up policy in response to the road danger.
Cllr Smith said she’d heard how one parent had to “leap for her life” to escape a vehicle.
“It’s about preventing a serious accident or incident,” she added. One of the flashing signs sits at the top of Oaks Bank before the bend while the other is at the bottom of the hill down from the school gates near the bridge.
Headteacher Dominic Brown was very pleased with the new additions.
He said: “We’ve had a couple of near misses and we’ve changed our going home procedures so everyone isn’t gathered outside the school gate.
“Suffice to say, without Heather and Stephen these signs couldn’t have happened so we are immeasurably grateful to them.”
