Outside Parua Bay Primary School, pupils clamber off the stationary school bus. Just metres away truck, cars and vans hurtle past at up to 70km/h - well over the legal 20km/h speed limit. A police radar gun fixes on a small silver car and red digits stop on 65km/h. The driver iswaved down by a fluoro-clad policeman. "Excuse me sir, do you know the legal speed past a school bus?" inquires the cop. "It's 50, isn't it?" the driver says, hoping he's right. He's politely informed of the legal speed. "Really?" the driver exclaims. "How long has it been that speed for?" It's been part of the Road Code for years. The driver is given a warning and sent on his way. Apparently his response is typical. The maximum penalty for exceeding the speed limit past a school bus is a $1000 fine. Highway Patrol boss Alastair Ward, of Northland police, said anyone with kids should be concerned about motorists' speeds as they pass children getting on and off buses. "Children are fragile and 20km/h might seem really slow - but at least at that legal speed they have a chance if they are hit," he said. While motorists might find it unrealistic to drive that slowly past school buses while children got on and off, in some parts of Australia and the US drivers had to stop completely. "We've had one too many deaths in Northland involving kids and buses." Over the past decade in New Zealand, 11 children have been killed getting on and off school buses, with another 15 seriously injured and 45 with minor injuries. The deaths include 7-year-old Zachary Hide, who was hit by a car as he crossed Cove Rd, near Waipu, to catch a school bus, and 13-year-old Grant Collins, killed after getting off a bus north of Kaitaia. In another bid to make schools safer for children, flashing 40km/h speed signs have been erected outside seven Whangarei schools.
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