Parents of Hazelbrook Public School students have gathered 500 signatures on a petition seeking safety barriers between the school and the highway.
The petition was presented to Blue Mountains MP, Trish Doyle, who hopes to raise the issue in Parliament next week.
The petition of the Parents and Citizens Association of the school and their supporters said there was a risk to the physical safety of students and staff because of the lack of concrete safety barriers along the Great Western Highway.
Parent Anna Wright said in February 2017, a car crashed through the fence of the school and landed in the playground. The accident occurred on a weekend, so no children were hurt, but if a vehicle crashed through the fence during school hours it would be catastrophic for any children playing there, and for the school community as a whole.
The P&C said the accident clearly showed that the existing fence does not serve as a sufficient barrier to protect students and staff from a vehicle if a driver lost control and crashed through.
The school boundary fences are not crash rated: they are not designed to keep vehicles out, only to keep children in.
Austroad guidelines state that there is a strong case for a safety barrier when a road comes close to a school yard.
The P&C said the lack of safety barriers also puts pedestrians at risk along this section of the highway.
Since the widening of the road, cars and trucks now pass closer to the school boundary than ever before.
The petition asked the NSW Parliament to support the funding of concrete safety barriers along the highway between Beechmount Avenue and Clearview Parade, Hazelbrook, and the extension of the concrete safety barrier towards the school at Beechmount Avenue.
