Several improvements are being made to upgrade safety at a pedestrian crossing on State Highway 1 in Mataura after a 10-year-old girl was hit by a car there in July.
Dayna Turnbull (10) and her brother Bailey (8) were walking to school with safety vests on when Dayna was hit by a southbound car at the Main St crossing.
She has been recovering from serious injuries.
Mataura Primary School principal Susan Dennison wrote to the Mataura Community Board outlining her concerns.
In response to that letter, a meeting was held between board members, Gore district councillors, Mrs Dennison, council roading manager Murray Hasler and New Zealand Transport Association staff.
The community board was updated on the outcome of that meeting at its Monday meeting.
Mr Hasler said there was a need to investigate a safety upgrade at the pedestrian crossing because of the number of accidents and near misses that had occurred.
Various upgrade options were discussed.
The orange flashing lights at both sides of the pedestrian crossing will be replaced with high-visibility day-glow discs.
"The reason for that [installing day-glow discs] is the incidents that have been occurring have invariably occurred during the daytime and the flashing lights are more effective at night," Mr Hasler said.
A new type of flashing "children crossing" warning sign is to be installed at the approaches to the crossing.
Safety rails will be repainted a neutral colour so that children approaching the crossing are more visible.
Other measures being investigated include lifting the platform at either side of the crossings to make children more visible and a "threshold treatment" to give an impression of the road narrowing to slow traffic down.
The safety measures should be completed by next month, he said.
