With Saskatchewan kids heading back to school last week, SGI’s traffic safety campaign for September will focus on school zone safety. Throughout the month, police officers across the province will be paying special attention to school zone offences.
These include: speeding, failure to respect signage, failure to yield for pedestrians, not obeying crossing guards and ignoring school bus cross arms and flashing lights.
Preliminary statistics for 2014 indicate there were 40 collisions in school zones resulting in 15 injuries.
According to Andy Schwindt, a former school bus driver and a current manager with Warner Transportation, the busing contractor for the Regina Public School Board, most of these are preventable.
“I’ve seen it all too often where an impatient driver endangers a child’s life by failing to stop at a school zone cross walk with flashing red lights or fails to use caution by dangerously manoeuvring around a slowing or stopping school bus,” said Schwindt. “There is the potential for something bad to happen every day because of the way motorists are driving through school zones and aren’t watching or paying attention.”’
SGI suggests the following tips to ensure children have a safe school year: Slow down and exercise additional caution when in a school zone; avoid all distractions; speed limits vary by municipality, but are marked with regulatory reflective signs; in
some areas of the province, including Yorkton, reduced speeds remain in effect evenings, weekends and during the summer and on holidays; check with your local municipal office if you’re unsure of the rules in your community; respect busing lanes and exercise the utmost caution when approaching or manoeuvring around school buses and; in school bus loading zones, obey all signs and signals and watch for children who may not know the rules of crossing the street.
The penalties for school zone infractions are hefty. The fine for speeding, for example, starts at $140 increasing with each kilometre per hour over the posted limit and carries three demerit points.
“We all play a role in keeping our children safe and school zones require your full attention,” said Schwindt. “Drivers need to understand where they are, and ultimately, what could happen when travelling through school zones. Look out for children in school zones as if they were your own.”
