Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is concerned that too many people exceed the speed limit when passing a stationary school bus, putting children at risk.
The Official New Zealand Road Code says if a school bus has stopped to let children on or off, you must slow down and drive at 20kmh or less until you are well past the bus, no matter what direction you are coming from.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) also advises that if you are caught doing more than 50kmh over a temporary speed limit (ie 70kmh past a stationary bus), then you will automatically lose your licence for 28 days.
RWNZ believes not many people know those rules and is campaigning for enforcement and education to improve the safety of passengers on school buses.
RWNZ's national president Margaret Chapman said the organisation wanted ‘‘to see flashing ‘wig-wag' lights and 20kmh signs on buses to alert motorists to the legal speed limit when passing a stationary school bus''.
‘‘We have found there is a dire lack of awareness of this Road Code rule. We need to implement simple ways of reminding drivers of the 20kmh limit every time they come across a school bus that has stopped for children.''
Since 1987, 23 children have been killed, 47 seriously injured and 92 received minor injuries when crossing a road to or from a school bus.
St Andrew's School principal Robin Rush said he had heard about the campaign and was fully supportive.
‘‘It's absolutely an issue for us because of the unpredictable nature of children and drivers,'' Mr Rush said.
The safety of the school's pupils was assured when they got off the bus at the school, because its three bus runs all terminated inside the school's grounds.
However, children were at risk while getting on and off buses in the 100kmh speed zone on State Highway 1 or rural side roads, he said.
Mr Rush said he suspected that many drivers were aware of the need to slow to 40kmh while driving past schools in built-up areas, and incorrectly assumed that the same rule applied to stationary school buses.
Therefore the issue would benefit from any publicity that the RWNZ campaign generated, he said.
‘‘The more we can put it out there in drivers' heads, the better. It's a real health and safety issue for us - we need cars to slow down to 20kmh.''
Barton Rural School principal Steve Zonnevylle said the issue was especially relevant to his school, because the road passing its entrance had an 80kmh speed limit, which meant drivers had to slow considerably to comply with the law.
The issue of vehicles' excessive speed came up between parents and staff ‘‘every now and then'', Mr Zonnevylle said.
He had personally seen a driver stopped by police for speeding past a school bus only once in his teaching career.
RWNZ has had input into a discussion document prepared by Transport Engineering Research New Zealand Ltd (Ternz) on behalf of the Bus Safety Technical Advisory Committee (Busstac).
The report makes a range of recommendations including educating drivers to pick up their children from the same side of the road as the bus stops, improving bus stopping places, conducting an awareness campaign aimed at improving the supervision of children crossing the road, changing the rules to enable effective enforcement of the Road Code and a driver-awareness campaign.
