No formal stops are set up for the school bus serving Rannock Road. Photos: Supplied.
Coolamon parents have expressed concerns about children waiting for their school bus next to cars going past at 100 km/h along Rannock and Millwood roads.
Jake Ellis, a 46-year-old retired police officer, drives his son, 7, to the “bus stop” and has taken it upon himself to supervise the other kids taking the same bus to Coolamon Central School and St Michael’s Catholic School.
He lives in Campbells Lane, right off Rannock Road.
Where the kids have to wait for the school bus every morning.
“That’s a big responsibility, and … it shouldn’t have to happen,” Mr Ellis said. “Kids should be able to walk to the bus stop safely.
“Look, it’s an accident waiting to happen, honestly.”
Transport for NSW knocked back Coolamon Shire Council’s request to reduce the speed limit to 80 km/h on the ground that the length of the road was less than two kilometres.
“We’ve had a lot of development [on the outskirts of town], a lot of five-acre blocks getting split off, and lots of new families moving into those things,” Coolamon Councillor Jeremy Crocker said.
Dyces Lane, which is right before Millwood Road, and Coopers Lane, which comes after, are both roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h. Cr Crocker thinks it doesn’t make sense that drivers are coming out of a 50 zone straight into a 100 zone, then back to a 50 zone.
“We decided that we’d ask [Transport for NSW] to extend the 50 [zone] out,” he said.
“You come out on the 100 and then go back into the 50, which doesn’t make sense to me.
“If they move the 50 out to there, it’s past all the houses, and it would alleviate or would lower the risk of some of these incidents, because by the time they get to the bus stop here on the Millwood Road they’re actually the trucks that are absolutely hammering.”
Transport for NSW rejected the request again due to the roadside environment.
“But then I think that’s where we run into the problem with not enough driveways. But that is only because we’ve done the right thing and designed the subdivisions the way [Transport for NSW] recommend,” Cr Crocker said.
Mr Ellis said: “The bus won’t actually drive into our subdivision, which I think is silly, like it’s a big subdivision, so all the kids from our subdivisions have to meet up on Rannock Road to catch the bus.
“There’s literally nowhere for them to stand. It’s like a 100 km/h main road.
“There are no bus stops. There’s nothing in place. There’s no signage saying that kids are crossing the road.
“You’ve got cars coming at 100, if not faster, and they just, if they’re not familiar with the area, they don’t really know what’s going on.”
Other cars can’t legally overtake the bus when it stops to pick up students on Rannock Road as there are double lines, so drivers wanting to go around the bus have to cross those lines.
Having been a local police officer for six years, Mr Ellis has seen his share of accidents on these roads from other drivers with fatigue, not concentrating or simply being unfamiliar with the area.
On the southside of Coolamon, heading to Wagga, there’s a bus stop. The speed limit was reduced to 80 in this street, which Mr Ellis thinks is still too high, but “at least there’s a bus stop”.
“So I don’t know why it’s not happened on the northside of Coolamon, and it just seems silly,” he said. ”It’s actually more dangerous because the cars are sitting on that 100 and there’s actually no bus stops in place.”
Rannock and Millwood roads are primary routes for stock and grain transfer.
“So in the harvest, they’re really busy,” Cr Crocker said.
Mr Ellis added: “I mean, anyone can see that it’s really only someone not concentrating, and some kids are going to get hit by cars. Yeah, the school bus is going to get cleaned up or something.
“All the parents in this subdivision have the same problem with their children. They can’t let their kids walk to the bus stop because there’s nowhere for them to walk.
“And the bus doesn’t come past our gate. Does that make sense?”
A Transport for NSW spokesperson said inspections carried out on Rannock and Millwood roads deemed the existing speed limit suitable, and that the ”informal bus stops” on those roads could be found across rural school bus routes in NSW.
“Transport’s contracted operators for school buses that operate on Rannock and Millwood roads have advised that they have not received any feedback or complaints from families about the location of these informal bus stops,” the spokesperson said, despite Cr Crocker and Mr Ellis’s testimonials.
“Transport is not currently planning to establish formal bus stops along the Rannock and Millwood roads.
“Community members who have any feedback or concerns about a bus route or stops should provide that to the operator. The operators and Transport use that information in services planning.”
Transport for NSW did not answer Region‘s question about why it prioritised parameters such as driveways and road lengths over residents’ and children’s safety.
