\n Parents waiting to pick up their children from Abbey Junior School yesterday said the measures were\u00a0a ‘really good idea’ after concerns over cars speeding down the road.\n<\/p>\n
\n The accident, which happened in February 2019, involved a child being hit and trapped under a car for half an hour.\n<\/p>\n
\n It happened at a busy time, while children were being picked up from school. The fire service, paramedics and air ambulance were called to the scene.\n<\/p>\n
\n The new zebra crossing on Cleveland Terrace (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) A 20mph limit, and speed hump have now been introduced on Abbey Road. A zebra crossing has also been added\u00a0on nearby Cleveland Terrace,\u00a0the road the infants’ school exits and enters on.\n<\/p>\n
\n The safety measures were installed during the summer holidays as part of Darlington Borough Council\u2019s programme of introducing 20mph zones around all primary schools, to reduce the number of road casualties.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, they were prioritised at Abbey Infants and Junior School as a result of concerns from parents and the school after the 2019 accident.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cliff Tinsdale has been the lollipop man in this area for 15 years. (Image: Newsquest) Cliff Tinsdale, 66, from Darlington, has been the lollipop man in this area for over a decade.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a good idea, I was here when the child got trapped under the car, luckily it wasn\u2019t fatal.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I\u2019ve been doing this for 15 years and it has helped, but people are still ignoring it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I\u2019ve seen improvements on Cleveland Terrace, I got asked to be put on Abbey Road because of how busy it gets\u201d.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Cliff Tinsdale was here when the accident happened in 2019. (Image: Newsquest) Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n A concerned mum from Darlington added: “I think it’s brilliant they\u2019re put in place. It’s terrible the way cars fly down here, it\u2019s just ridiculous. Even when the lollipop man comes out, he can\u2019t always get them over the road\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n In response, Cllr Libby McCollom, cabinet member for local services, said: “Darlington Borough Council is committed to the safety of our young people. Every year, we invest around a quarter of a million pounds in physical measures such as school 20mph zones and safer routes to school to improve safety for children travelling to and from schools.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn addition, we spend approximately \u00a3200,000\u00a0per year on the school crossing patrol service and the pedestrian\/cycle training programme that is offered to all primary schools within the borough.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe follow national guidance when assessing the need for new school crossing patrol sites. This guidance has been developed by road safety and accident reduction experts from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and Road Safety Great Britain. We have a programme of introducing 20mph zones around all primary schools.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Darren Langham said “people are always rushing” when picking up his son from school. (Image: Newsquest) Darren Langham, 52, from Darlington, said: \u201cYou still get people charging down, it could do with speed bumps in the middle of the road – but\u00a0it\u2019s a lot better.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There are a few times the lollipop man has almost been hit, you see\u00a0the cars just flying past.\n<\/p>\n
\n “When I pick up my son, people are just in such a rush. Can\u2019t they wait two minutes for the safety of the kids?”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mike English, 72, from Darlington, added:\u00a0\u201cThey should have been put in years ago. My main concerns are the speeds that people come down this road.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Sam Rickards, 31, from Darlington, said: “Is there going to be a zebra crossing on Abbey Road as well? Children from the infant\u2019s school come out with parents, but lots of children here walk out by themselves, and there isn\u2019t a zebra crossing for them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe\u00a0new measures are brilliant but long overdue, it\u2019s good that the council are taking it seriously. I think the speed bump on Abbey Road is too far down though.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Darlington Borough Council’s programme introduced 20mph on roads near primary schools. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) The cabinet member for local services added: \u201cAbbey Infants and Junior School was prioritised as a result of concerns from parents and the school, after a child was involved in a road traffic accident.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe substantial works are now complete and were carried out during the school summer holidays to avoid impacting on access to the school.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOur approach has resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of casualties from road traffic collisions. The accident data for Darlington indicates that overall, the number of casualties in 2024 was 156 compared to 322 in 2014, which represents a 52 per cent\u00a0reduction. The number of child casualties in 2024 was 19 compared to 29 in 2014, representing a 34 per cent\u00a0reduction.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe will continue to focus on reducing this number further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents waiting to pick up their children from Abbey Junior School yesterday said the measures were\u00a0a ‘really good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-415090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115184204829277509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}