The number of pedestrians - especially children - killed or maimed while crossing busy roads is a subject that is routinely in the public domain.

Invariably the authorities do not move expeditiously to tackle the menace before there has been a large number of casualties at a particular danger spot.

Not surprisingly officialdom is being slow in the face of calls from residents living near the busy R552, northwest of Johannesburg, to erect a bridge or deploy a pointsman on the road.

Schoolchildren crossing the road at Lanseria risk injury. Already passing traffic has claimed the lives of two learners this year.

Statistics of the road should long have alerted the department to the problem.