The Berlin police want to ensure more safety on the city’s school routes with a total of 685 operations this week and next. The Tagesspiegel learned this from the Presidium. According to this, “targeted and high-profile traffic monitoring and traffic accident prevention measures” are planned, in which primarily action should be taken against speed violations, disregard of stopping and parking bans and red traffic lights as well as violations of the rules at pedestrian crossings.
When it comes to the ban on stopping, the police want to focus in particular on the so-called parent taxis, which regularly cause chaos in front of schools and endanger children. That is why the police want to take action both against stopping in the second row and against the blocking of fire brigade access roads and junctions. With the StVO amendment last year, the general five-meter rule for no parking at intersections and junctions was supplemented by an eight-meter rule for streets with parallel cycle paths. This is intended to reduce the risk of turning accidents, which, according to police statistics, mean the greatest risk of accidents for cyclists.
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According to the police, 782 accidents involving children were registered on Berlin’s roads last year. 486 children were slightly and 113 seriously injured. While no child has had a fatal accident on the streets of the capital in the past two years, two have already died in 2022: An eleven-year-old was killed by a red driver, a five-year-old by a passing car when he ran off a central island. At the event organized by the Berlin Citizens’ Foundation “Visibly mobile to school” campaign on Wednesday on Tempelhofer Feld, Senator for Transport Bettina Jarasch (Greens) announced that many temporary play streets would be set up for September 22, provided there was enough local support. On that day, the annual campaign “Walk to school” is planned, which is supported by associations and local residents’ initiatives – and to varying degrees by the district offices.