By: Mr. Luke Colborne, Health and Safety Officer at STS
Extreme as they seem, adore or abhor them, STS summer bumps have had an immediate and profound impact on driver behaviour on campus, increasing safety and security for pedestrians and drivers of all ages and levels of situational awareness who access our campus daily, intermittently, during an event, or perhaps only once after missing turnoff for the Calgary Polo Club.
In the weeks, months and years leading up to the summer bumps installation, our risk management team identified, through observation, documentation and discussion, widespread driver behaviour consistent with excessive speeding and lack of acknowledgement of road safety best practices. Furthermore, we have seen an increase in official incident reporting from staff, parent, student and visitor bodies citing near misses involving vehicles on campus. Hazardous driver behaviour poses a major threat to school and stakeholder health, safety and security, especially where it affects pedestrian traffic activity. We have students (some as young as four and five), teachers, parents, visitors and contractors accessing our trails, playing fields, sidewalks, roads and parking lots at all hours during the day. STS has a legal obligation to do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure the safety and security of allparties in the vicinity of its worksite, and summer bumps are yet another example of STS’ commitment to the health and safety of those who serve or are served by its educational and operational purposes.
There will be those of us who do not feel even the slightest bit responsible for the untimely arrival of our newest safety features (myself included), the angels of the asphalt among us if you will. These people know who they are, and we are all thankful for the road safety savvy you display on a daily basis. Unfortunately, many hazard controls come in a “one size fits all” solution. Either way, there will always be both those for which behaviour modification hazard control measures are not originally intended, and those upon which the larger health and safety plot is lost altogether forever and ever, never to be spoken of, seen or heard from again. We ask patience and resolve of our wider STS community on the roads and beyond as we near the end of another school year.
Please stop, think and proceed with caution behind the wheel or otherwise in the name of injury and accident prevention, and for the immediate sake of pupil, people, peer and property protection and preservation.