A MACROOM mum and her two children are literally ‘walking in the gutter’ as they try to avoid heavy and constant traffic while on their daily school walk.
Sarah Kate Murphy recently posted a video on social media highlighting the dangers that she and her two children – aged five and four – face daily, and she is calling for something to be done before a fatality occurs.
Her video shows her daughter walking in the gutter alongside numerous cars and there is barely room for them to walk inside the double yellow lines.
Speaking to The Southern Star, photographer Sarah Kate said this occurs on New Road in Macroom, which has direct access to St Mary’s Secondary School and St Joseph’s Primary School.
‘You can’t walk between the parked cars and moving cars so we are forced to walk in the gutter every day. Just last week we got soaked walking in it,’ said Sarah Kate.
‘The traffic comes down at speed, even though it’s still a 50kph zone and there is no priority given to pedestrians.’
Sarah Kate says that it’s always been like this for their school run and she doesn’t understand why it hasn’t been challenged and how it has been allowed continue for so long.
‘It should be a shared zone and there should be signs up giving pedestrian priority where at the moment the cars get the priority.’
She has contacted the board of management in the school as well as the National Transport Authority on the need for signs.
‘It’s scary as well as my child is quite young and he might run ahead. I’m trying to make sure he’s safe but all it could take is one fall and he could be under a car.’
She has contacted her local councillors about the issue and feels that given the volume of traffic there, this would be the ideal opportunity to promote a safe schools route, similar to what is in place in Bandon.
‘Cars are getting the priority at the moment and that is just unfair as well as potentially dangerous.’
