I bought a copy of the Mirror today. Not a paper I usually buy, but there was an article about walking to school in it - which I had written the press release for.My eye was drawn, however, by the story about lollypop people being armed with video cameras hidden in their lollypops as a way of catching abusive and threatening motorists.
I think this is a great idea. Having spoken to many lollipop people in my time (or school crossing patrols to give them their proper title) it is shocking how much abuse they face from impatient motorists. The figure of 1,400 "patrol rage" incidents seems, if anything, a bit on the low side in my experience.
What motorists don't seem to realise is the great job these people do - often for very little thanks (and certainly very little pay).
If nothing else, without school crossings there would either need to be more traffic lights (and road ragers don't want that) or there would be less people walking to school (because they don't feel safe) increasing the congestion on the road. Yes they may be in a hurry at the moment, but the alternatives are both (from the POV of the road rager) worse!
It is sad that these "robo-pops" are needed, but if it will help protect and support lollypop people, I am all for it.
See also:
1 comment:
Our lollipop lady is called "Auntie Carol" and she regularly goes in to the school to talk to the children about road safety and gives out bags of sweets to her regular crossers at Christmas. I am sure this is out of the goodness of her heart because she loves her job, as you stated "a great job with very little pay".
Thank you for dropping by my blog and keep up the good work!
Post a Comment