PARENTS are a danger to their own children by driving them to school.

The claim was made by a number of councillors at last week's Letterkenny Electoral Area (LEA) meeting. The meeting heard that Donegal County Council are currently carrying out an audit of traffic flows to and from schools under the guidance of Road Safety Officer, Mr Eamon Brown.

Councillor Tony McDaid said that the biggest risk to school children was posed by their parents driving habits.

"More children should be walking to school. The biggest problem is cars arriving outside schools to collect and drop off children. Some parents let their children get out of the car on the wrong side in to the path of traffic. We should be encouraging more children to walk to school," Cllr McDaid said.

Cllr Ciaran Brogan agreed adding that there needs to be an "attitude change" amongst parents.

"Everyone wants to drop their children off outside the school. People are parking three abreast outside schools. Both the schools and the Council do not seem to know how to tackle it," Cllr Brogan said.

He added that the Council should talk to bus operators as the problem was affecting every school in the county.

"Some responsibility must be taken by schools and parents," concluded Cllr Brogan.

Cllr Dessie Larkin said: "some people become monsters around school time".

He added there was a pilot project down south where flashing lights were operated on stationary school busses. Cllr Larkin said the council should at the possibility of installing flashing lights on school busses in Donegal too.