Wednesday December 18, 2019 ~ SOOKE
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
In light of the recent injury to a student crossing Highway 14 across from Edward Milne Community School in Sooke on December 12, the Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure (MOTI) has committed to a review of the crosswalk and highway adjacent to Edward Milne to see if additional measures to improve safety can be added, it was stated by the Ministry on December 17.
At the same time, the ministry will review the crosswalks and highway adjacent to the three elementary schools — Saseenos Elementary, Sooke Elementary, and John Muir Elementary — all of which front onto Highway 14.
The speed limit on Highway 14 in front of Saseenos and John Muir Elementary schools is 60 km/h. In front of Sooke Elementary school the speed limit is 50 km/h.
“However, the speed limit in front of each of the elementary schools is posted at 40 km/h when children are present on the highway,” says MOTI. “This offers children visiting the school fields and playgrounds additional protection when school is not in session, like during evenings and weekends, and spring and summer break,” it was stated by MOTI today.
The ministry says it will also gather speed data from the school zones over the coming months. “There isn’t any recent data on average speeds along the Highway 14 corridor near the three Sooke schools,” says MOTI. It’s quite likely that many vehicles exceed the speed limit on that busy corridor that Sooke depends upon for all traffic in-and-out of town.
MOTI is responsible for the physical infrastructure – the crosswalks and pedestrian-activated lights — across from EMCS but is not responsible for the provision of crossing guards. That is done by Sooke School District 62 (SD62) which hires crossing guards (CUPE employees) using funds provided by municipalities.
Funds are received from the District of Sooke (as well as the City of Langford and City of Colwood) for contribution to the cost of hiring crossing guards (see page 1 article in the December 13, 2019 print-PDF issue of West Shore Voice News).
Presently, the District of Sooke contributes $14,000 to SD62 for crossing guards, an amount to which an increase of $9,000 was requested by SD62 recently, for 2020 (before the EMCS incident happened). Langford currently pays $42,000 and Colwood currently pays $14,000, says SD62 Secretary-Treasurer Harold Cull.
