A road safety message from Sunshine 106.8.
It's twenty past eight on a weekday morning, and outside a primary school gate, dozens of children are arriving on foot, on bikes, and being dropped from cars in a hurry. It's one of the most predictable, and most avoidable, moments of risk on Irish roads every single day.
Children don't judge speed and distance the way adults do. A car that looks like it's plenty far away to an adult driver can look completely safe to cross in front of to a seven-year-old — because their sense of how fast a car is closing simply hasn't developed yet. That's not a flaw in the child. It's just how children's brains work, and it's exactly why the roads around schools need drivers to take on the extra care themselves.
The good news is that this is one of the easiest places to make a real difference. Slow down well before you reach a school, not just when you see the signage. Expect children to step out from between parked cars, because they will, and they won't always look first. And if you're dropping off yourself, take the extra thirty seconds to park properly rather than stopping on a footpath or a yellow box, because that forces other parents and children out onto the road to get around you.
None of this is about blaming parents, or children, or any one group. It's simply about recognising that for about twenty minutes, twice a day, term-time, the roads around a school carry a different kind of risk — and a driver who's aware of that, and adjusts for it, makes a real difference.
So this week, whether you've got children of your own or not, give yourself a little extra time on any road near a school. It costs you almost nothing. For a child stepping out from between two cars, it could cost everything. And that small adjustment, made consistently by every driver on that road, is what actually keeps a school run ordinary and uneventful, morning after morning, year after year.
A road safety message from Sunshine 106.8, funded by the news reporting scheme.
Gaeilge
Teachtaireacht um shábháilteacht ar bhóithre ó Sunshine 106.8.
Tá sé fiche tar éis a hocht ar maidin lá den tseachtain, agus lasmuigh de gheata bunscoile, tá scórtha leanaí ag teacht de shiúl cos, ar rothair, agus á scaoileadh amach as carranna faoi dheifir. Is é seo ceann de na hamanna is intuartha, agus is inseachanta, riosca ar bhóithre na hÉireann gach uile lá.
Ní thomhaiseann leanaí luas agus fad ar an mbealach céanna le daoine fásta. Is féidir le carr a fhéachann fada go leor uaidh do thiománaí fásta a bheith cosúil le rud sábháilte le trasnú roimhe do leanbh seacht mbliana d'aois — toisc nach bhfuil braistint tugtha faoi deara aige/aici fós faoi cé chomh tapa is atá carr ag druidim leis. Ní locht ar an leanbh é sin. Sin go díreach an chaoi a n-oibríonn inchinn linbh, agus sin go díreach an fáth a dteastaíonn ó thiománaithe an cúram breise a ghlacadh orthu féin ar na bóithre in aice le scoileanna.
An dea-scéal, is ceann de na háiteanna is éasca é seo chun difear fíor a dhéanamh. Moillínigh i bhfad sula sroicheann tú scoil, ní hamháin nuair a fheiceann tú an chomharthaíocht. Bíodh súil agat le leanaí ag céimniú amach idir carranna páirceáilte, mar tarlóidh sé sin, agus ní bhreathnóidh siad i gcónaí ar dtús. Agus más tú féin atá ag scaoileadh amach linbh, tóg an tríocha soicind bhreise chun páirceáil i gceart seachas stopadh ar chosán nó ar bhosca buí, mar go gcuireann sé sin tuismitheoirí agus leanaí eile amach ar an mbóthar chun dul timpeall ort.
Níl aon cheann de seo faoi mhilleán a chur ar thuismitheoirí, ná leanaí, ná aon ghrúpa amháin. Is faoi aithint atá sé go simplí go mbíonn cineál eile riosca ag na bóithre in aice le scoil ar feadh timpeall fiche nóiméad, faoi dhó sa lá, i rith an tseasúir scoile — agus déanann tiománaí atá feasach ar sin, agus a chuireann in oiriúint dó, difear fíor.
Mar sin an tseachtain seo, cibé an bhfuil leanaí féin agat nó nach bhfuil, tabhair beagán ama breise duit féin ar aon bhóthar in aice le scoil. Ní chosnaíonn sé beagnach faic duit. Do leanbh atá ag céimniú amach idir dhá charr, d'fhéadfadh sé gach rud a chosaint. Agus is é an choigeartú beag sin, arna déanamh go comhsheasmhach ag gach tiománaí ar an mbóthar sin, is cúis go n-éiríonn le turas scoile a bheith gnáth agus gan eachtra, maidin i ndiaidh maidine, bliain i ndiaidh bliana.
Teachtaireacht um shábháilteacht ar bhóithre ó Sunshine 106.8, arna maoiniú ag an Scéim Tuairiscithe Nuachta.