Remember the speed limit, pleads a small child as motorists approach a pedestrian crossing on Waipawa's main street.
Remember the speed limit, pleads a small child as motorists approach a pedestrian crossing on Waipawa's main street.
There are small, motionless children watching you from the kerb of Waipawa's main street and its pedestrian crossings.
Some drivers are finding them quite alarming.
"People are saying 'I got a fright — I thought it was a child'," says Waipawa resident Pip Burne.
"Well that's the effect we wanted."
Because they are children. Ten small children, most of them Waipawa School pupils, who have had their photo taken and their images turned into road signs, with speech bubbles exhorting motorists to slow down.
"The speed bumps that were installed after the Waipawa Four Square fire have gone a long way to slowing drivers down, but they are not permanent. We needed something medium-term and a way of making it personal.
"Something that said 'we live here, this is our place and please don't drive through it like a bat out of hell,'
"We all know 50km/h is the limit but you shouldn't always do it."
Pip started a Facebook page "Hey you — slow down, Waipawa", and also started looking for ideas to make motorists take notice and drop their speed, saying it is only a matter of time before there is a tragedy on the stretch of highway that is also home to Waipawa's shops and pedestrians.
Drive like your kids live here, urges a Waipawa School pupil.
The idea of having some of the town's young people making the point appealed, but internet searches revealed the concept hadn't been tried in New Zealand.
She put out a call and several parents answered it, asking their children to be the faces of a road safety campaign.
Waipawa School staff Pete Burne and Tania Elworthy took the images, which were made into long-lasting road signs.
CHB Engineering added the spikes to anchor the "road safety ambassadors" in position and this month the children made their debuts.
Pip is a CHB District councillor but says this project was initiated "as a parent and a resident".
"It fits well with a petition that has been organised by Dean Rangi, to reduce the speed limit in Waipawa. The funding has come largely from parents, it's been a community initiative.
"People rely on the council to do things but the community can do stuff for themselves if they get behind a project. People are time poor but we can all do a little bit — that's the lovely thing about small communities.We have 10 'caretakers' looking after our signs. Two are cared for by the school, and others have been adopted by Waipawa businesses that bring them in each night and put them out in the morning.
"We have worked on this project since May, but now that we have the recipe right ... maybe it will be picked up in other areas of the country.
"This is just the start. We do need other ways as well, and maybe the petition will work and Waka Kotahi will come to the party and reduce the speed limit.
