Accidents and incidents, Ekeberg school | The emergency services rushed to Ekeberg school

At 08.30 the police were at Ekeberg school following a report that a teenage child had been in a bicycle accident with a bus. Task leader in the police, Gabriel Langfeldt, initially told Nordstrands Blad that their opinion was that the bus should have been standing still and that the cyclist had driven into it.

Soon after, the police report that this is still somewhat unclear.

– The cyclist must have turned onto the road at the turning point in the direction of the school. The bus must have turned into the turning area at the same time. It is a bit unclear whether the bus was speeding or not, but there was a collision, says police officer Nilsen at the scene.

Bruises

Nilsen tells Nordstrands Blad that they were notified of the accident at 08.23. The cyclist is in his early teens.

– The investigation will show what exactly happened, he says.

The teenage child has bruises, but is not seriously injured.

– The cyclist was examined by the ambulance at the scene and was assessed as having minor injuries and discharged, the police say.

What happens to the driver is currently unclear. We are interviewing witnesses at the scene, says Nilsen. The question of guilt is unclear.

According to Nordstrands Blad’s reporter on the scene, the incident causes a full accumulation of buses at the turning point.

Parents fear serious accidents

As Nordstrands Blad has mentioned on several occasions, there has recently been a call to improve traffic safety at Ekeberg school, and on the road around the school: “Report of concern about the traffic situation around Ekeberg school”. The petition received over 300 signatures within a day. This means that the city council will get the case for consideration, and already on 15 May, representatives from Ekeberg will present the case at the City Hall to the transport committee.

An action group with parents from FAU at the school and local welfare associations stood up in March when the district committee in Nordstrand had a meeting. There they said that they fear that lives will be lost, and they asked that Oslo municipality must take immediate measures before a serious accident occurs. They describe buses driving on pavements, parents parking within the “heart zone” in Stamhusveien, chaos with buses queuing on their way to the bus loop by the footpath and motorists driving straight across pedestrian crossings despite the school patrol standing there.

There have also been several accidents at the school. On 20 October 2014, a girl was hit in the corridor at the school. On 19 May 2020, the same thing happened again. This time too, it was a girl who was hit in the pedestrian crossing at the school. On 9 December 2020, a bus driver lost control of the bus which crashed into the stone wall close to the turning point. Last winter, a motorist was stopped at Ekeberg school after driving almost the entire length of Vårveien without scratching the window.

Ekeberg is one of Oslo’s largest primary schools with over 800 pupils.