Residents, desperate to ensure children’s safety along Albertina Sisulu and other roads, hosted several meetings to seek solutions to their concerns.
Two separate incidents in August this year left one child seriously injured, while another child was killed a week later along the same road, Albertina Sisulu Road.
Two Kensington Primary School pupils were involved in accidents in less than a week.
One of the two was an eight-year-old boy who died after he was struck by a car at the intersection of Albertina Sisulu Road and 6th Street.
Another boy, Mpho Mudau (10), was critically injured after he was struck by a car on Saturday, August 1.
The community and schools in the area are concerned and have tried to make the streets safer for the pupils.
A community meeting was held to suggest and discuss solutions with regards to speeding motorists in the area.
Cyrildene Primary School has taken a stance and wrote a letter to the Johannesburg Roads Agency, requesting assistance by means of speed humps.
The school is situated at the intersection of Lorna and Glanville avenues and the main gate opens onto Lorna Avenue, which functions as a one-way after school from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.
“The road becomes congested during dismissal time and also in the mornings. The road is short and the volume of traffic is too much. Taxi’s block the road, causing dangerous situations to arise. Even the motorists do not respect the rules of the road, and disobey and ignore the scholar patrol which is headed by pupils only,” said the ward 118 councillor, Clr Mike Spadino.
Clr Spadino said in the past a request was made for speed humps to be built along Glanville Avenue, which was done, but now it seems that Lorna Avenue has become the new “hot spot” for speeding motorists.
“This is a major concern for the school and parents because even though the teachers always try to monitor in the morning and after school, there is still a number of pupils who are left unattended until late in the afternoon and these pupils run on the road,” said Clr Spadino.
