OA Brumby Students Aim To Improve Road Safety

Students at a secondary school in Scunthorpe are appealing to their local council to put in place road safety measures outside their school.

In total 18 students from Outwood Academy Brumby, which is based on Cemetery Road, have written to North Lincolnshire Council after the whole academy was involved in discussing the issue of road safety around the academy’s site.

The students are asking the Council to take the appropriate actions to place yellow zigzag lines on the road to prevent cars parking on the road as in the mornings the road is very busy due to the academy also being next door to Outwood Junior Academy.

One of the students who was involved in writing the letters described the situation as ‘an accident waiting to happen.’

Darren Smith, Lead Principal at Outwood Academy Brumby, said:

“The students have shown great maturity doing this project and I am proud of the attitude they have shown in thinking about the safety of others.

“Due to the close proximity of our academy and the junior academy, the road is pretty manic for a good spell of time in the morning as children are dropped off by parents. Our students are concerned that this creates a hazard for not just the students that have to cross the road in between cars, but also cyclists and other members of the public who are on the road at these busy times.”

The letters have been sent to the Council Road Safety Team, as well as the academy’s local councillors, and the students are hopeful their concerns will be listened to.

Kayleigh Mumford, a Year 9 at Outwood Academy Brumby, said:

“On Cemetery Road you do get some people driving at speeds exceeding 30mph. This is an accident waiting to happen. 

“With children aged 7 to 16 walking down that road to get to school every morning, it is clearly not safe and is endangering children's lives. The clear solution is to put yellow zig zag lines.”

Yellow zigzag lines mean that parking in that area would block other road users' view of the school entrance and would endanger the lives of children on their way to and from school.

Year 8 student, Taylor Eggitt said:

“We need traffic to be safer because there are a lot of young kids around here and they are unpredictable. Even though there are lollipop ladies around it is still not safe enough.”