“Russian roulette” of safety fears after school bus stop moves

A Mablethorpe parent fears a school bus stop has become a “Russian roulette of who is going to get hurt” after it was moved onto a shorter, busier road around the corner.

The bus stop which serves Theddlethorpe Academy was moved from Tuplin Road to Peter Chambers Way at the beginning of January.

However, Jamie Leigh Dalton told Local Democracy Reporters that where the previous stop had been a long straight road with no obstacles and wide enough for cars to manoeuvre, the new location was just in front of a roundabout exit, on a shorter road off the busy Golf Road.

The old location on Tuplin Way. | Image: Supplied

The move initially landed the stop on the Tesco side of the road causing congestion backing onto Golf Road, but has since switched sides. However, Jamie feels the location is still unsafe.

“It was only around the corner but now unluckily for us this has begun to feel like a Russian roulette of who is going to get hurt,” she said.

She described how she had witnessed road rage and revving around the bus as children alight from their journey, some even going the wrong way around the roundabout.

Some children on the bus are under the age of 10 and in many cases need help accessing it or time to pay the bus driver.

“This bus stopping isn’t a quick stop, so cars understandably get impatient especially in peak times like going to work and going home,” said Jamie.

Buses stop close to the exit of the roundabout almost, if not entirely, blocking it off at times. | Image: Supplied

Lincolnshire County Council said it had moved the bus stop following concerns from “a number of residents” in September 2021 about “the volume of traffic using Tuplin Road”.

“To mitigate this, the council worked with the local bus operator to explore other options. From January 2022 the change was implemented and pupils in this area are now picked-up and dropped-off on Peter Chamber’s Way instead of Tuplin Road,” said Nicole Hilton, assistant director for communities at Lincolnshire County Council.

“As a result of initial feedback and observations that were carried out last week by our inspection team, we have now moved the stops to collect on the same side of the road for the morning and the afternoon pick-up and drop-off. This means that the children do not have to cross the road after leaving the bus, alleviating the concerns raised.

“We have also commissioned a further health and safety review at the stop to assess the traffic flow and impact in the area. We will be engaging with the Road Safety Partnership about the findings of this review throughout the process.”