Slow down and keep us safe, rural school pupils urge fast drivers

Parents and teachers at a County Tyrone primary school have called on the government to urgently reduce the speed limit on the road outside the building over safety fears.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) turned down an application by St Mary's Primary School in Fivemiletown for traffic-calming measures and a 20mph speed limit.

The DfI said its road safety for schools policy "is focused on rural school sites on national speed limit roads as a priority".

As St Mary's is situated in a 30mph zone, it doesn't meet the criteria. The 40mph zone starts just a short distance from the school's gates.

"It's an accident waiting to happen," a school governor told BBC News NI.

Less than one mile away, on the same A4 road, another primary school in the village had its request for a lower speed limit granted in the summer.

Parent Mairaid Kelly, who is also a governor at St Mary's, told BBC News NI the school has been trying to change the speed limit for years.

"We can't understand is why on such a fast stretch of road where there's danger every day, our request for more safety measures hasn't been granted at this stage," she said.

She added that the school was "just in the wrong spot".

"Quite often we see heavy vehicles, we see fast vehicles, and it's quite scary for the young children.

"One small child takes a step out into that road at a busy time at drop off or pick up, and I don't even want to think about what the consequences of that could be."

Ms Kelly called for action before someone gets hurt.

"What we don't want is an inquiry after-the-fact of something terrible happening," she said.

"What we want is proactivity, people to sit around a table, understand the real risk that's posed here to children, families, to bus drivers, to staff, to crossing patrol, and work together to improve the safety for all."

The Department for Infrastructure has rolled out the 20mph limit at 233 schools across Northern Ireland as part of its commitment to road safety.

This year, 40 schools, including Fivemiletown Primary School, have had the measure implemented.

"We're delighted for our friends in Fivemiletown Primary School," said Ms Kelly.

"Absolutely, we want their children to be just as safe as ours.

"But this is a faster stretch of road here and we know there's an increased risk and we just want at least the same to happen up at our end too."

Local councillor Mark Robinson says cars regularly drive through Fivemiletown faster than the 30mph limit.

"Traffic branch has been here and they've picked up cars coming in at 50, 60 miles an hour," he said.

He is also confused by the decision to allow one school the measure and not the other.

"This is a safety measure to try and protect children going to school. It could be anybody's grandchild it could be anybody's child," the DUP elected representative said.

"Over the course of a mile, changing the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph will add an extra minute to your journey, that's not much [to ask] to save a life."

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the fatality risk at 30mph is a one-in-five estimate, while the risk at 20mph is just above one-in-40.

The principal of St Mary's, Brian McCloskey, said he was worried that the heavy traffic was causing anxiety for children going to school.

"The children are concerned when they're getting out of the cars in the morning time and getting into their cars in the evening time," he said.

"The speed of traffic is frightening them, particularly down the school in primary one and primary two."

The Department for Infrastructure told BBC News NI that the assessment score was higher at Fivemiletown Primary School.

"There were two separate recorded road traffic collisions in 2023 and 2024 within a 150-metre radius of Fivemiletown Primary School which resulted in an overall higher assessment score at that school," the department said.

The Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins is also looking at rolling out the 20mph speed limit at more schools in future.