Slow Down in School Zones

You would think that one of the safest traffic areas in any city would be the school zone, with its decreased speed limits, crossing guards and motorists’ special alertness to children. It certainly should be. But to the shame of Orange County motorists, it’s not always so. Far from it.

According to the child safety group National Safe Kids Campaign, Orange County drivers are among the worst scofflaws in the nation when it comes to driving through school zones.

About six out of 10 drivers nationwide go at least 5 mph over the posted speed limit near schools. In Orange County, it’s closer to nine out of 10.

The study pinpointed one Santa Ana area, at Rosita Elementary School, as the worst spot, where 100% of the cars in a recent clocking sped by above the posted limit. It’s a dangerous problem that plagues all the schools in Santa Ana and throughout the county.

Last month, a Santa Ana school principal called police after more than a dozen instances of motorists speeding through the crosswalk, disregarding the crossing guard’s stop sign and endangering children starting to cross the street. The extent of driver indifference to child safety and selfish impatience to save a few moments can be measured in the national statistics that show that being struck by a car is the second leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 14. In the last three years in Santa Ana, six crossing guards have been hit by cars. Last month in North Hollywood, a crossing guard was struck and killed by a car.

The traffic-snarled streets around schools, especially in older areas where streets are narrower, are a problem of growing concern for school officials and police.

Each morning, in addition to the children walking to school, many others are dropped off at schools by parents. This creates a chaotic scene of double-parked cars and children darting across streets between parked autos to get to the schoolyard.

In Santa Ana, where nearly 60,000 students are on the streets each day going to and coming from school, police and school principals have been stepping up safety efforts. There are school officials out in the street directing traffic, and police are issuing more tickets to motorists and jaywalkers and have escorted home children seen crossing streets unsafely. Officers also go into the schools and talk to about 25,000 students a year about bicycle and pedestrian safety.

Needed and welcome as those efforts are, children would be a lot safer if motorists just took alternate routes away from schools during morning and after-school hours--and eased up on the throttle any time they were in a school zone.