Parents worry intersection near cole Sage Creek School unsafe for kids

Parents inSage Creek say an uncontrolled intersectionjust north of an elementary school is unsafe for kids walking to and from school and now, the City of Winnipeg says it wants to look at possible solutions.

"I have yanked my kids back a number of times to not get hit by a car," says Jen Shapka, mother of two daughters who attend cole Sage Creek School.

She and other parents say the Prairie Smoke Drive and Wild Iris Walk intersection is chaotic during both pick-up and drop-off times.

"There are kids streaming out of there. There's no parking enforcement that I've ever seen. So people are being Looney Tunes with where they're parking and letting their kids out," said Shapka.

Students at the overcrowded early learning to Grade 8 school have to navigate the three-way "T"intersection, controlled by a single stop sign, in order to exit and enter school property to the north.

There are no sidewalks and no crosswalks, unlike the schoolentrance to the south.

After a snowstorm, the intersection becomes an "absolute disaster",saidShapka.

"[This winter] I was so afraid someone was going to get hit by a car."

'I sawtheir point,' says councillor

On Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg's public works committee voted unanimously to ask the public service to review potential traffic-calming measures at the intersection.

Shapka, who lives north of the school, originally reached out to the cole Sage Creek School Parent Advisory Council. That group invited Coun. Brian Mayes(St. Vital)to see the intersection during peak commutetimes.

"I saw their point," Mayestold CBC by phone prior to the committee's vote. "There's a huge number of kids coming out at the same time. That appears not to have been planned for."

cole Sage Creek School was built in 2017. While the south-end of the school has a crosswalk, the north end of the school doesn't appear to adequately take into account traffic streaming down from new developments to the north of the school, said Mayes.

He wants to see the intersection becomea three-way stop, and wants thecityto paint lines on the road along with addingwarning signs for drivers.

"[We've] got to see what we can do to improve the safety," Mayes said.

The civil service will reportback in 180 days onpossible changes at the intersection. Datacollected before the end of the school year will form their recommendation.

For Shapka, the recentdeaths of two children in Winnipeg make the concerns all the more pressing.

"I just feel like, what is it going to take before somebody does something?"

Parents in Sage Creek say uncontrolled intersection near school is unsafe

6 years ago

Duration 2:12

Students have to navigate the three-way "T" intersection, controlled by a single stop sign, in order to exit and enter school property.