O.C. Drivers Zip by Schools at Kids’ Peril

Orange County drivers are among the worst offenders when it comes to driving irresponsibly in school zones, according to a survey scheduled for release today.

While 65% of drivers nationwide go 5 mph or more over the posted limit in school zones, 87% of those in Orange County speed near schools, said the survey by the National Safe Kids Campaign, a child safety advocacy group.

The survey--which used local police to clock vehicle speeds during the half-hour before and after school in 29 regions around the country--was the first of its kind. But the danger to children from moving vehicles has been well-documented.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car crashes involving child pedestrians are the second-leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 14. Each year, an average of 675 children die from motor vehicle-related pedestrian injuries and an additional 20,000 are injured.

Young children may be particularly vulnerable to injury and death in such accidents because their auditory and visual capabilities are not fully developed until age 10, according to studies cited in the survey. As a result, they may have difficulty judging the speed and distance of an oncoming vehicle.

Injury statistics for Orange County children were not available, but local educators and police said traffic is a significant problem.

Santa Ana, for example, suffers from one of the state’s highest pedestrian accident rates, and half of all pedestrian accidents involved children walking within a few blocks of a school, according to one study.

The speeding problem is considered so serious that children have been enlisted in the broader crackdown aimed at reducing speeds. Student researchers have used radar guns to track speeds in front of one busy school where several students have suffered accidents.

Students from Pio Pico Elementary School on Flower Street found that motorists regularly traveled 10 to 15 mph over the 25-mph speed limit and that speeding seemed most prevalent around noon.

“In the morning and when students return home, those are heightened times of anxiety for me and my district,” said Al Mijares, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District. “We know that close to 60,000 students are on those streets. It’s always a concern that they get home safe.”

Crossing guards have complained that motorists often ignore their warnings to yield. Over the last three years, six crossing guards in the county have been hit.

In response to those concerns, Santa Ana police last year began assigning extra patrols to crosswalks, ticketing motorists who don’t yield.

The release of the survey coincides with Walk Our Children to School Day, in which volunteers in 39 cities in California and across the nation will accompany children as they walk to school today--offering safety tips and alerting them to potential hazards along the way.

The speed limit in most school zones is 25 mph. Although most Orange County drivers in the survey averaged about 7 mph over the speed limit, 31% traveled at least 10 mph over the limit.

Even a slight increase over the speed limit is dangerous to children, according to the survey. The risk of a child pedestrian being killed in a vehicle-related accident is eight times greater by a car traveling at 30 mph than at 20 mph.

“Speeding in school zones has always been a problem here,” said Officer Dick Worcester of the Irvine police. “But on a local basis, within the last year or two, speeding [in school zones] has gotten significantly worse. Harried schedules seem to be across the board. Everyone is trying to make up a little time, and they are doing it by stepping on the accelerator.”

Worcester said it often is parents themselves who endanger children’s safety. “We often pull over parents for speeding as they rush their child to school before they go off to their own workday,” he said. “They are focused on the safety of their own child, but they are often not so concerned about other children.”

* PROTEST PLANNED

Santa Ana residents worried about traffic safety at school will rally today. B4

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Getting to School Safely

When you are driving near schools or when children are apt to be going to or coming from school, keep the following traffic tips in mind:

* Be careful at busy intersections near schools. Come to a complete stop at red lights and at intersections with stop signs.

* Parents, follow the school’s rules about loading and unloading passengers. Failing to do so could endanger children.

* Drive with headlights on (even during the day) to be more visible to children and other drivers.

* Look for indications of children in the area, such as safety patrols, adult crossing guards, bicycles, school buses and playgrounds.

* Look carefully between and around parked cars and other objects for signs of children about to dart into the road.

* Practice extra caution in bad weather by increasing your following distance, because it may be more difficult to see and stop for children.

* Stop for school buses flashing their red lights.

Parents whose children walk to school or to a bus stop can reduce hazards by planning ahead:

* Discuss and map out the safest route to and from school or the bus stop before school starts.

* Establish safe walking habits, such as using crosswalks correctly, obeying traffic signals, looking left, right, left again and over the shoulder for turning cars before crossing a street, allowing enough time to cross safely. Use pedestrian push buttons at signals where available.

* Point out possible traffic hazards, such as walking where there are no sidewalks or crossing at intersections without signals.

Source: Auto Club