Back to School Safety: Stay Alert in These 3 Danger Zones
As the seasons change and fall is here, kids are going back to school. After a couple years of broken school attendance due to the pandemic, there’s a returning sense of normalcy for families as school aged kids go back to their buildings.
Students will be filled with excitement as they reconnect with friends and settle into their routines. The attorneys and staff at the Paul Powell Law Firm want to remind everyone to prioritize safety as the school year begins.
Good parenting is not enough
Parents constantly caution their children. “Do not to walk to school with earphones in. Walk with your head up and don’t be looking down at your phone.” Admonishment includes, “Stay aware and watch for vehicles and strangers around you.”
Kids are told to walk on sidewalks and not to cross the street anywhere but in crosswalks. Since they were toddlers, they’ve heard “Look to the left and to the right before crossing the street.” We can tell them to walk to school with friends, that there’s safety in numbers. And odds are school bound kids are not going to do any of these things.
We were that young. We remember how it was. The excitement of finally getting to be with friends. Our racing hearts. The talking, pushing, and tugging. The impromptu games of chase that broke out across parking lots and grassy yards. Wonderful, yet oblivious times!
Drivers Should Be Aware of the 3 Back to School Danger Zones
- Getting to School Zone
Kids get to school on public transportation, school buses, cars, bikes, skateboards, walking and running, and an occasional unicycle or a pair of roller skates. They will flood in via routes from around the immediate neighborhoods and farther away from across town.
This puts the onus on drivers to be more careful, especially during morning and afternoon hours when kids commute to and from schools. Watch for WHERE kids may unexpectedly dart out and heighten awareness of HOW they are traveling. A fast-moving skateboarder or bicyclist can catch us unaware and can be quite startling, as we know. We are already cautions around school buses and school zones, but we forget that there are peak hours when students are spreading out across our community making all of us more vulnerable, both kids and drivers. We need heightened awareness during times when kids are traveling to and from their school buildings.
2. School Adjacency Zone
Neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity of schools are increased danger zones. As children move closer to their schools, they cluster up. It’s like watching radar blips in a movie where planes are homing in on a target. The denser the number of kids, the higher the interaction and distraction and chance for accidents.
This is also the zone where adults driving kids to school seem to lose their collective minds! While still blocks away from schools, vehicles will abruptly change lanes and dart to curbs to discharge their passengers. No signals. No warnings. Just an otherwise calm and cool driver we’ve followed for blocks suddenly going whacko! I’m told some want to avoid traffic congestion at the schools and others have sensitive children who for one reason or another don’t want to be seen being dropped off and prefer to walk over.
3. School Property Zone
While school administrators pre-plans drop off and pick up areas at their schools and want them to work as quickly and safely as possible and while teachers and personnel are ever present as students come and go at the start and end of the day’s sessions, this is Danger Zone 3. It’s symphony of school buses, cars and pickup trucks, skateboards and bikes, scooters and darting students. Late to work, agitated, and impatient parents struggle their vehicles through plodders who have nothing else to do for the whole day.
Little Johnnies are carelessly dashing out of back seats in pursuit of friends. Pedestrians are unexpectedly stopping to pick up dropped books or papers. Teachers are waving and shouting directions
Be vigilant when driving through any of the 3 Back to School Danger Zones
- Look around up ahead and close by. Left and right. It’s the things we don’t see while driving that can become the most problematic and end in harm. The best way to handle an emergency is to prevent or avoid it before it starts. You never know from where a child might dart out. They’re smaller and move very quickly. And sometimes they make unconscious decisions about what they’re doing a not paying attention to. That means we drivers have to be on guard and drive defensively.
- Leave more room between you and the car, truck, or vehicle ahead so you can better handle unexpected emergency stops. Between cell phones, kids in cars, and the crowded confusion around schools, accidents are inevitable; yet your quick response in stopping can avoid many.
- Closely monitor your speed, especially in school zones. The silly things people do in and around school zones can be extremely frustrating and make even the best of us impatient. Ever so imperceptivity, we can increase speed without even realizing it. Here’s a helpful tip. When you’re driving along and find you are talking to yourself a lot, that’s a good time to glance down at the speedometer!
The Paul Powell Law Firm makes things better
Whether it’s a gentle reminder for back to school or a massive charitable undertaking like Paul Pays It Forward, all of us at The Paul Powell Law Firm care about making our community and lives better each and every day.
Paul Powell has been helping others since he graduated from law school. When you’re in need, contact Paul Powell. More Lawyer. Less Fee.