The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Crying out for safety

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Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Crying out for safety

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

School entrances are witness to chaotic scenes twice a day

Photo: C. Ratheesh kumar

Invitation to disaster: Much more needs to be done to ensure that they reach home safe. A scene in front of a school in the city on Friday evening.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Utter chaos. The scene in front of many city schools twice a day, morning and evening, can be described thus. It is a virtual tussle between a swarm of students and speeding vehicles. Students’ safety is put in serious jeopardy. Other pedestrians and vehicle users too suffer.

Sorely lacking are footpaths, zebra crossings and foot-over-bridges. Add to this, paucity of enough personnel to regulate traffic.

Students wait endlessly to cross the road. Although the speed limit in the school zone is restricted to 15 km per hour, not many drivers follow the rule.

Parking space near schools is mostly inadequate. Parked vehicles at times encroach into road, leaving little room for smooth traffic flow.

Worst hit

The stretches in front of St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School and Arya Central School, Pattom; Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School, Vazhuthacaud; St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School and Holy Angels Higher Secondary School, near the General Hospital; Chinmaya Mission School, Kunnumpuram; Government Model Higher Secondary School, Thycaud and St. Shantal near Kowdiar are some of the worst affected.

Still on paper

A proposal of the traffic police to set up foot-over-bridge in front of major schools is still on paper.

Foot-over-bridges made of light-weight material were proposed in front of St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School, Government Model Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic (North), K.S. Sreekumar told The Hindu that women police constables were deputed from local police stations to manage traffic and to guide students during peak hours.

PWD ‘promise’

The traffic official said the Public Works Department had promised to redraw the zebra crossings in front of the educational institutions in the city limits within two weeks.

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