What is a Lollicam/road crossing monitor?
The Lollicam/road crossing monitor has been developed by a
company called Routesafe in order to improve road safety at school
crossing patrol sites.
It is two mini cameras fixed to a lollipop pole that captures on
film any irresponsible drivers who ignore instructions given by a
school crossing patrol.
For more information download the
Routesafe information leaflet from the
Routesafe website.
What is a school crossing patrol?
School crossing patrols, sometimes known as lollipop
people, work outside or near to schools where it is difficult
to cross the road.
They are employed by us, primarily to help children across
the road safely on their way to and from school, but
legally they can stop traffic for anybody to
cross the road.
What is the problem? Why do you need the
Lollicam?
By law, drivers must stop when a school crossing patrol shows a
‘STOP’ for children sign (commonly know as a lollipop).
However, on occasions some drivers ignore this and drive through
the ‘STOP’ sign, or try to intimidate or abuse school crossing
patrols by driving up close to them or revving engines.
In North Somerset, over three years, 18 drive through
incidents were reported by patrols to the police, although it is
estimated that many more go unreported as patrols see it as part of
their day to day job.
The Local Government Association (LGA) reported around
1,400 incidents a year, less than 100 of these actually
going to court.
How big is the problem?
It is estimated there are around 17,000 manned crossings
throughout the UK. If each of these were to have two incidents a
month this would mean there were 34,000 incidents a
month across the UK or 340,000 a year (because school crossing
patrols work for 10 months a year as schools are closed for
the other two for holidays).
Why have we chosen Wraxall School for
trials?
The school crossing patrol site at Wraxall School has had the
most reported drive throughs to the police, totalling six out of
the 18 recorded incidents in North Somerset over three
years.
How long will the trial last?
The trialling of the road crossing monitor will take six
months, which will give us enough information to let us
analyse the effectiveness of the system.
Why not provide a signalised crossing instead of a
school crossing patrol?
School crossing patrols are very effective and widely used to
help children and parents to cross busy roads on their way to and
from school.
Compared to a permanent signalised crossing, they provide
the following advantages:
- Much more visible to other road users to warn of children
crossing.
- Able to manage traffic and pedestrian flow better, reducing
congestion to a minimum at school peak times.
- School children and parents need to use the crossing a lot
during school opening and closing times. But the rest of the
day it would probably not be used very much, if at
all, meaning a fixed crossing would not be good value for
money.
What is the penalty for not stopping for a school
crossing patrol?
For failure to stop for a school crossing patrol you could
get up to a £1,000 fine and/or three penalty points
on your driving licence.
Who is supporting this road safety
initiative?
As well as North Somerset Council's Road Safety team, the police
and Department for Transport have given their support to this
initiative within North Somerset, and have approved the use of
their logos on signage and publicity materials.
How do I become a school crossing patrol person/lollipop
person?
If you can spare a few hours a day contact our
School Admissions and Transport team for information about
becoming a school crossing patrols.
