Yass Valley will be participating in the National Walk Safely to School Day on the 19th of May, connecting to the National Road Safety Week from the 14th to the 21st of May before finalising with Fatality Free Friday on the 26th of May. The three events hope to bring awareness to the safety precautions around roads and driving habits, with Yass Council’s Road Safety Officer Meryl Hinge discussing the relationship between the events, what to expect, and why they’re so important, drawing on crash statistics throughout the last year. 

Commencing with Walk Safely to School Day, Meryl summarises the day’s motivation and relevance, saying; 

“Walking to school has traditionally been something that kids have done a lot over the years and it’s become less and less due to various reasons, community safety, traffic, all those things, so transport NSW has set aside one day so that parents can walk together to school with their kids, all the way or part of the way, it doesn’t really matter so that they can see it can be a really enjoyable experience, and perhaps outside of walk safely to school day will be something they do from time to time, to encourage people to get out there into the community walking”, said Meryl. 

Walk Safely to School holds special relevance this year to the Yass Valley, with updates and developments around major roads, parking areas and schools allowing for safer drop-off and walking areas for children. 

Yass public school has seen various renovations throughout the last year, with a dedicated bus lane with a safety barrier on Laidlaw Street installed, as well as a dedicated drop-off space known as a ‘kiss and drop’ zone, and increased parking separate from these areas to prevent crossover with walking children. Similar projects include Berinba Public School’s installation of a shared pathway for pedestrians and pedestrian crossings near intersections, Gundaroo Public School’s pedestrian refuge and drop-off zone as well as disabled parking and bus stop relocation, Mt Carmel’s Rossi Street children’s crossing and Sutton Public schools pedestrian refuge. 

Meryl summarised the recent developments and upgrades with;

 “Additional upgrades have been done to a lot of the schools in the Yass Valley area where parks and parking have been redesigned so that it’s easier for students to get from pedestrian area to school”, commented Meryl. 

Walk safely to school events have previously been done, with Berinba and Mt Carmel having previously taken part. Meryl commented on the event as; 

“a great way to celebrate all the work that’s been completed and to get people out there using it”

Outside of the 19th of May, the rest of the week will be about National Road Safety Week; 

“A week about raising awareness for not just general road safety but individual driving behaviours to try and reduce the road toll of fatalities and serious crashes”, as encapsulated by Meryl. 

A significant number of fatal crashes in and around Yass Valley have taken place since August of last year alone, with the toll currently at eleven fatalities. To commemorate and raise awareness around these tragedies, yellow ribbons will be tied around trees on the main street. As well as addressing commonly known causes, such as speeding and intoxication, Meryl hopes to also raise awareness around driving fatigued, with fatigue making up half of the fatal crashes.

“Starting a conversation about speeding and fatigue is a key way of making it real, its a cost to the community, it’s a cost to families, and it’s not just a financial cost, it’s emotional and social. Yass is a fatigue area and it’s a major issue, it’s really important to reduce the incidents that may arise”, noted Meryl. 

Meryl referenced the ‘Every K counts’ campaign from Transport NSW, a campaign aimed at challenging motorists’ attitudes towards their driving and habits, citing that many fatal crashes are only 10km over the speed limit. 

The awareness campaign week will end with Fatality Free Friday on the 26th, in which talks about road safety will be held at Riverbank Park with local services and breakfast. The event is still in development.  

Griffin Palen