A VETERAN lollipop lady is leaving her job because of a new electronic crossing that she fears could be a death trap.
"It's an accident waiting to happen," said 68-year-old Margaret Brown who has patrolled on Poulton Road near to Layton County School for more than 30 years and was honoured with an MBE for her service two years ago.
Blackpool's road safety department have countered that the high-tech Puffin crossing is a major benefit.
The Puffin, with push buttons and green man signals, makes crossing the road a two-stage operation with a central island as a waiting point.
Margaret has to get children across the road in sequence with the lights.
But she is concerned that the narrow lanes push the traffic too close to children waiting to cross.
"I would come back tomorrow if they would get rid of all this. I couldn't live with it if anything happened," says Margaret.
She says using the crossing is difficult because, having got a group of youngsters to the middle, she has to make her way through them on the small island before they can make the second stage of the journey.
A straight forward single crossing would be better says Margaret, who lives nearby.
"I have stood at my window and watched and hardly anyone presses the button. They just walk across because the road has been made so narrow."
Road safety officer Carol Bracegirdle said she was concerned by Margaret's comments. "We don't want to deter people. We want to encourage them to use the facility.
"The crossing is there to help people, not just children. It is there 24 hours a day."
She said she had visited the school to explain the new system to children but added: "Listening to Margaret's concerns I am going to go into school and have a further chat with the children. We are going to take children out to see how they are going to use it.
"The lanes are a lot narrower so you don't have a big expanse to cross which is a lot easier. We teach the children not to stand on the kerb stone but a little back from the road and not to cross until the traffic has stopped.
"It is like all new things. We are going to have to get used to them and using them."
School headmaster Phil Whiteley said they would be monitoring the situation.
"If we feel it's having a detrimental effect, creating more danger, we will request the lollipop person is replaced."
There was always concern when there was a change but there would be more road safety training for the children in the use of the crossing.
Mrs Bracegirdle said the "intelligent" Puffin could recognise gaps in the traffic and detected when someone had pressed the button and crossed without waiting for the signal so it did not delay traffic with an unnecessary signal.
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