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Police halt father's safe road drive

Friday April 3,2009
By Tom Morgan

A WORRIED father who drove his car behind his son as he walked to school along a dangerous country lane has been warned he could be arrested for obstructing the road.

David Kirkwood dressed Archie, 11, in a high-visibility jacket and crawled along behind him in his red Fiesta topped with a sign explaining that Archie was walking to school.

Mr Kirkwood blames the county council for the fact that the 60mph country lane has no pavements. His traffic-stopping school run was to highlight the dangers of the mile-and-a-half walk to school.

But his protest was cut short when police picked up Archie and drove him to school over “safety fears” and warned his father he could be arrested if he repeated the stunt.

Mr Kirkwood, a self-employed builder from East Hanningfield, near Chelmsford in Essex, said: “I’ve been pursuing this since 2006. Everyone has a right to use the road, cyclists, pedestrians, cars. It’s about equal access to all. Archie wants to walk to school and he should walk to school. I used to walk to school. The county council is paying to transport thousands of children when they could be walking.”

Mr Kirkwood wrote to the police to tell them about his protest and officers stopped him as he was following Archie to his school, East Hanningfield ­Primary.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We took the decision to take the boy to school for his own safety.” Officers advised Mr Kirkwood he was “at risk of causing an unlawful or wilful obstruction” if he continued.

A spokesman for Essex County Council said: “Where a parent feels the route is not reasonably safe the county council will carry out an assessment. Where it is deemed there is no safe way, then alternative school transport will be provided. No application for an assessment has been received.”

Everyone has a right to use the road, cyclists, pedestrians, cars.

Why didn't his dad don a reflective vest and WALK to school with his son? That way, he could have kept an eye on him AND better taught him what to do and what to keep an eye out for!

I can just imagine all the schoolchildren walking to school next, ALL with parents following in their cars....just imagine it.....

Like walking on the correct side of a road that has no pavements?

If the father was following in a car you can bet they were on the same side of the road, which means the boy wasn't facing oncoming traffic

Exactly - the picture in the Daily Mail showed the lad walking on the left hand side of the road (thus with his back to the traffic) which isn't exactly what the highway code says that you should do

mb