Drivers – kill your speed, not our children! |15 July 2009

On Tuesday July 14 at around 7.30am I was walking my daughter to Beau Vallon school and so were numerous other parents with their kids.

As I walked past an Indian shop near Beau Vallon police station, a black Daihatsu Sirion with music playing inside at full volume and the driver’s door wide open was parked next to that shop and facing towards Bel Ombre. The driver was obviously in the shop.

The main zebra crossing, used by hundreds of school children each day, is located barely 25 metres away. By the time I reached the crossing, other parents and children were waiting for the “lollipop ladies” to give us the go-ahead to safely cross the road.

Suddenly we heard a screeching noise of a car’s wheels spinning at high speed, just like the racing speed devils usually do when they accelerate and drive off at full throttle! It was that black Sirion with a “heartless animal” at the wheel, who sped past us as we gasped in horror!

We all had to retreat at the sheer force of that high speed and ponder on what could have happened if a group of school children had been crossing the road at the exact time that “animal” drove past. But, as the lollipop ladies, parents, teachers and children would confirm, this is not a new phenomenon!

May I appeal to anyone who managed to catch a quick glimpse of that “speed beast” or who knows him personally to please notify Beau Vallon police station so he can be duly disciplined to “kill his speed before he kills a child”!

It is also worth noting that a day care centre and Beau Vallon creche are both located on the other side of the road, and every day lots of infants use that stretch of road. That “Sirion devil” has given us a wake-up call but he is not the first heartless and brainless jerk to drive past this crossing at full speed, either coming from Beau Vallon or from Bel Ombre.

May I call on the Land Transport Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, to please, for the love of our innocent little pedestrians, URGENTLY consider placing two speed bumps (one on either side) of this zebra crossing…and why not at other main zebra crossings serving hundreds of school children across the country?

Let us do it before a parent loses a dear son or daughter to the carelessness of such “speed animals”.

Should there be a shortage of funds for such projects right now, may I plead with the police to please suspend these drivers’ licences or prosecute them for negligent driving. Alternatively, as Beau Vallon police station is located only around 25 metres from that crossing, maybe one police officer could be there every morning between 7am and 8am and in the afternoon from 2.30pm till 3pm to serve as a deterrent and be there to take note of the vehicle registration numbers of those who violate traffic regulations in that area.

As a concerned parent, I’m sure I’m not asking too much! We must do something…and we must do it NOW!

Gustave Decomarmond