There has recently been a number of near misses on roads around NCW where our students who are blind or vision impaired have been in grave danger of injury due to dangerous or thoughtless driving.

A number of incidents have occurred on the pedestrian crossing at the roundabout where London Road meets Whittington Road and Spetchley Road. This is an extremely busy roundabout, especially at the beginning and end of the school day with a high volume of road traffic and pedestrians as Nunnery Wood High School and Worcester Sixth Form College close their doors for the day. With recent roadworks on London Road, the issues have been exacerbated with drivers passing through on a red light, being stationary over the crossing or driving over before blind or vision impaired pedestrians have reached safety.

Along with lobbying the relevant local government departments for greater safety measures on these roads, NCW has also created an awareness campaign so that local residents, schools, colleges, businesses and others using the road can be more aware, using the slogan “Kill Your Speed, not a blind child”.

Year 11 NCW Student Rico said: “I was having a mobility lesson and when I started to cross my mobility teacher had to pull me back out of the road as a car came speeding across”

Many of our young people and some of our staff members cannot see traffic approaching at all and rely fully on their other senses to detect danger. Many have complete trust that drivers will be adhering to lawful speeds and behaving correctly at crossings. They assume that road users will not be putting a goal to complete their journey over the welfare of people who are blind or vision impaired.

Principal of NCW, Nic Ross, said: “Teaching our students to navigate roads and pedestrian crossings independently is a crucial part of their learning at NCW and it is imperative they are able to learn safely”

No-one wants to be involved in an accident so the message to drivers is to please kill your speed, adhere to crossing protocol and be aware of pedestrians with disabilities.