The Western Advocate reported last week that concerned parents at Carenne had started a petition to have a pedestrian crossing installed outside the Browning Street school.

Now Roger Emanuel, whose grandchildren go to Bathurst Public School, said he cannot believe there isn’t a pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Rankin and Lambert streets for students who are walking to school.

Mr Emanuel said he was walking his grandchildren to school last week when it really struck him how dangerous it was.

He said he believes it is only a matter of time until a child is seriously injured or killed trying to cross the road.

“I was walking my two grandchildren to school down Lambert Street, and because I’m not from Bathurst, it was something I hadn’t noticed before,” he said.

“It was dangerous. I had my two little grandkids with me and we had to stop halfway in the middle of the road.

“I had these two little kids stuck in the middle of the road and cars going either side of us.”

Mr Emanuel said now the school has its big security gates, there are only two points of entry so there is no other way he can walk the children across the road safely.

He said the fact that many of the buses drop off the students along one side of Lambert Street also added to the danger. 

“One day a child is going to be hit by a car,” he said. “I’m staying in Bathurst. I come from Tumut. It’s only a small country town but there is a crossing and flags straight out the front of the local school. I can’t believe it’s not the same here.”

Mr Emanuel said he went and spoke to council on Thursday morning and was told there was no justification for a crossing at the Lambert/Rankin street intersection.