Mum’s ‘no parking’ plea after near miss at Halfway Houses school
Published: 00:01, 26 September 2013
A Queenborough mum has appealed to fellow parents to abide by ‘no parking’ rules outside Halfway primary.
Hayley Kingsnorth, 34, spoke out after her daughter, Mia, was nearly hit by a car on Friday afternoon.
She said a taxi was forced to reverse to make way for another driver because vehicles were parked on zig-zag lines outside the school gates in Southdown Road.
Mrs Kingsnorth said eight-year-old Mia was crossing the road with her dad, Mark, when she came within a whisker of being hit by the car.
It has led to her making an impassioned plea for people to be more sensitive to road markings.
The mother-of-three, from Castle Street, said: “I want to say to parents please don’t park on zig-zag lines because your child’s in jeopardy as well as mine.
“Mia was OK but my husband was really shaken.
“If he hadn’t shouted at the driver to stop, the car would have hit Mia.
“But the taxi was only forced to reverse along the road in the first place because cars were parked where they shouldn’t have been.”
Mrs Kingsnorth said despite the presence of traffic wardens in the area during the school rush hour, parents continue to ignore ‘no parking’ signs.
She has taken her concerns to Halfway’s head teacher, Ryan Driver, and said a more drastic approach might be needed if the problem continues.
“I’ve spoken about the possibility of having pupils with banners stand outside the school gates to warn drivers about dangerous parking,” she said.
“If parents see children taking a stand it might jolt them into taking the matter more seriously.”
Mr Driver said staff took down the numbers of vehicles parked on yellow lines on Monday afternoon.
He added: “We wrote down the registrations of six cars and we’ll report persistent offenders to the relevant authorities.”
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Andy Gray