Parents have aired their concerns over a dangerous bus stop along a “mini highway”, fearing it will only be a matter of time before a tragedy occurs.
School children as young as six have been forced to catch their school bus from a t-intersection along a stretch of road with a 100km/h speed limit.
For the past decade a school bus had directly serviced several rural-residential streets at Cooroibah.
Bus No.5834, operated by CDC Sunshine Coast, would pick up students along Carriage Way and Silverwood Drive from ‘hail and ride’ stops on its journey to schools at Tewantin and Sunshine Beach.
In the morning the bus would pick up children before conducting a reverse turn on both streets to head back the main road.
In the afternoon the bus would conduct the reverse turn before children disembarked to ensure safety.
However, at the start of the school year the bus stop locations were changed from the quiet residential streets to the busy McKinnon Drive.
CDC Queensland general manager Queensland Anna Tyben said the changes were part of safety measures introduced in consultation with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR).
“Since 2018, our Sunshine Coast team has worked in collaboration with Translink to provide safety solutions at locations on the Sunshine Coast school bus network,” Ms Tyben said.
“Due to the dangerous nature of reverse-turn manoeuvres, this includes actively working with TMR to identify unsafe locations.
“The two stops were identified as high-risk, as they required the buses and drivers to perform dangerous reverse turns.”
During Noosa Council’s Ordinary Meeting on September 19, Cooroibah’s Rachael Morrison presented a deputation outlining the concerns of parents since the changes.
The stops were relocated to a hail and ride stop at the intersection of Carriage Way and McKinnon Drive, and an existing bus stop at the intersection of Silverwood and McKinnon drives.
During her deputation, Ms Morrison said that due to complaints on the safety of the Carriage Way intersection stop CDC and TMR had since deemed it as a risk and removed it from the service.
Now the only bus stop for the area is at the Silverwood Drive t-intersection along McKinnon Drive.
Ms Morrison referred to the road as a “mini highway” known for its near crashes and blind corners.
“The present pick up point is located in a 100-kilometre zone on a blind corner with no safety barrier,” she said.
“This road has a high volume of traffic due to an increased population and has a regular flow of logging and quarry transportation trucks.
“It is basically a mini highway from Pomona, Cooran, Kin Kin and Gympie.”
She said up to 15 primary and secondary school children could be waiting for the bus on any given morning.
“That’s 15 children waiting to be hit by a speeding truck or someone who takes the blind corner too fast.”
For some students it was now about a two-kilometre walk to the new bus stop, and with no footpaths students were forced to walk alongside the main road or through vegetation.
Ms Morrison said parents were now driving their children to the bus stop, which in turn was creating increased traffic and congestion at the intersection.
The other option was to drive their children to the interchange at Tewantin State School, which she said adds to the already high traffic area and defeated the purpose of a school bus.
Ms Morrison said parents had met with TMR and CDC to discuss a solution, but so far no action had been made.
In a statement to Sunshine Coast News a Translink spokesperson said reverse or three-point turns were deemed unsafe due to limited or no visibility.
“(Three-point turns) would not be approved in South-East Queensland, if requested as part of a new route approval request today,” the spokesperson said.
“Translink has worked with our delivery partner CDC, to progressively assess and realign a number of services where buses were required to conduct a three-point turn.”
The spokesperson said in the months prior to Term 1 commencing detailed planning, approval, communication and operational readiness activities were undertaken.
“This review included Translink undertaking a review of changes to route 5834 (morning and afternoon services) amongst other routes prior to the implementation of the changes.
“The review supported the removal of three-point turns on several routes, as CDC was able to demonstrate alternative safer alignments with minimal passenger impact.”
The spokesperson said school bus service delivery partners could designate safe hail and ride locations in the absence of formal bus stop infrastructure.
“This flexibility allows school buses to stop at more locations, providing practical and safe access to public transport for all users.
“The hail ‘n’ ride stop on McKinnon Drive near Silverwood Drive was already an existing bus stop on this route and regularly picked up students and drivers observed parents dropping students off at this stop to catch the school bus.”
Translink said it acknowledged the ongoing community concerns relating to the removal of three-point turns along Carriage Way and Silverwood Drive.
“We are working closely with CDC to investigate alternative options including reverse cameras as part of the next school service change process, with any changes to be implemented at the start of Term 1 in 2025.”
Ms Tyben reiterated safety remained CDC’s top priority
“The safety of school children, their drivers, and all passengers, employees, and road-users, remains the number one priority for our organisation,” she said.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb.
