It’s the end of classes, around 3 p.m., in Bussigny. The children who leave the Collège du Tombay are as tall as three apples, and to reach the neighboring neighborhood some are used to crossing a small road. As the area is limited to 30 km / h, they can cross even if there is no pedestrian crossing. But do they remember that they don’t have priority?
“It’s a bit sensitive,” says Laetitia Meyer Drelon. She does not take her eyes off the schoolchildren and enters the scene as soon as one of them approaches the road: “Do you remember the rules? We stop, we look from two sides and we only pass when the wheels of the cars stop moving. ”Since mid-January, the young woman has been one of the two“ patrol coaches ”hired by the Municipality to test a concept which is gradually spreading in French-speaking Switzerland.
More flexibility
“We had requests from parents to set up a road safety concept, but the solution of traditional school patrollers seemed too restrictive,” explains Laurent Émery, deputy head of service for social cohesion, childhood and culture in Bussigny. With their yellow vests – and not pink, like the coaches – and their palette, school patrollers are posted only at pedestrian crossings and with a very specific role: to regulate traffic to help children cross. “Unlike them, coach patrollers cannot stop traffic. On the other hand, the advantage is that they can be posted anywhere and not only at pedestrian crossings, “explains Laurent Émery. It designates zone 30 opposite the Collège du Tombay. “We couldn’t have posted someone there, for example. We needed more flexibility. ”
“It’s a way to make children involved in their safety, even when there is nobody to stop the traffic”
Laurent Émery, Assistant to the Head of Service for Social Cohesion, Children and Culture, in Bussigny
In Switzerland, 60% of serious accidents involving children occur outside of school. This statistics from the Accident Prevention Bureau is the other reason that prompted Bussigny to take an interest in coach patrollers, whose role is essentially to provide education and prevention. “It is a way of making children actors of their safety, even when there is no one to stop the traffic,” said Laurent Émery. After ten days in the field, Laetitia Meyer Drelon observes that children know safety rules well: “But we must insist again and again, and teach them to make the right decisions, because motorists do not always do the right thing.”
The concept of coach patrollers comes from German-speaking Switzerland and entered French-speaking Switzerland in 2015 in Collombey-Muraz, in Valais. Since then, it has slowly spread to the township to reach ten communities today. Last August, it was the canton of Friborg that got started, introducing coaches for the first time in Riaz. Vaud is not to be outdone, since Tévenon, in northern Vaud has been adopting this system since 2017 already, for very pragmatic reasons.
Ask the PolCant
“We wanted school patrollers, but we don’t have pedestrian crossings! So the cantonal police told us about this other solution “, explains Martine Dell’Orefice, municipal in charge of Schools, who is herself one of the seven patrol coaches active in the town. After an experience of more than two years, the elected representative notes the user-friendliness of the system, which makes it possible to meet children and their parents. “We are sometimes called guardian angels, but we also sometimes have to scold.”
Despite this first successful experience, Bussigny is only the second Vaud municipality to follow that of Tévenon. The cantonal police, which train and supervise the coach patrollers, do not specifically promote the concept. “There has to be a demand,” said Corporal Florence Frei, communications officer.
In Bussigny, the concept of coach patrollers will be tested until the spring, mainly to assess the locations where their presence is most relevant. “We already know that we will perpetuate this solution as of the next school year,” says Laurent Émery.
Created: 01.02.2020, 4:18 p.m.
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