Edinburgh primary remains closed for an extra day following crash in school car park

A primary school in the Capital is to remain closed for a second day after a parent crashed a car into the building’s gas store having “left off the handbrake.”

Emergency services were called to Juniper Green Primary on Baberton Mains Wynd shorty after drop-off after it emerged a car had struck a solid structure which houses the gas mains on Wednesday morning.

It is understood the car belonged to a parent who had left its handbrake off.

Staff and pupils were immediately called to leave the building while investigations are to be carried out.

A picture of the car after it crashed into the gas store at Juniper Green Primary picture: supplied

In an email to parents, seen by Edinburgh Evening News, headteacher Anthea Grierson has confirmed the school is to remain closed on Thursday and is expected to reopen on Friday.

Her statement read: “I wanted to update you all on the situation here. As I mentioned in my previous email after the accident occurred, emergency services were called along with a representative from [gas distribution company SGN]. The structure that was damaged in the car park housed the gas mains supply and the gas to the school was immediately switched off.

"The plan tomorrow (Thursday) is for the emergency services to remove the vehicle and dismantle the structure carefully for further investigation works to take place. The gas supply must remain off whilst this work is taking place which means that there will be no heating, hot water or cooking at the school.

"Juniper Green will remain closed tomorrow whilst these investigative works take place. Staff will email class SWAYs to parents with all tomorrow’s lessons and activities. I know that parents were used to supporting children with learning using our SWAYs earlier in the year so hopefully this will be familiar to you all.

“Hopefully the school will reopen on Friday but at the moment I am unable to be certain about this until the exploratory works have taken place.”

Ms Grierson said she will send parents updates as soon as she has more news and thanked staff and families for their patience with the unexpected situation.

A police spokesman said: “Police were called at 9am this morning following a report of a car colliding with a building in Baberton Mains Wynd in Edinburgh.

"Police and fire services attended and there was no criminality established.”

Members of gas distribution company SGN also attended the school to assist with the incident.

The Edinburgh Evening News has been contacted by concerned parents who said it is a strict school rule that parents are not allowed to bring vehicles into the car park unless there are pre-arranged circumstances.

One parent said: "Despite the very best efforts of the school and parent council to enforce the rules around parents parking in the school grounds, there are always some who feel that the rules don’t apply to them.

"It is fortunate that this incident didn’t result in anyone being hurt, however to avoid something more serious happening in the future, hopefully this will encourage parents to adhere to the rules, which are there for everyone’s safety.”

Another parent commented saying: “I am hoping this results in change as way too many parents bring cars in.

"This could have been really bad.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.