Schools Are Rethinking Traffic Safety

It’s 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in front of Golden Hill Elementary School in Fullerton. As cars pull up to a yellow loading zone, a boy races into the street after a basketball.

Other children cross Barris Avenue outside the crosswalk or play tag on the sidewalk near arriving automobiles. There are no crossing guards or school staff members on duty to supervise.

Some parents make U-turns in front of the campus while others unload their children from the driver’s side into the middle of the street. In their haste, a few drivers drop off their young charges in a “No Parking” zone.

The tragic deaths of two girls at an Anaheim elementary school a day earlier underscores a stark reality: Trips to and from school are among the riskiest times of the day for young students.

After Tuesday’s accident at Centralia Elementary School, parents complained that the combination driveway/parking lot at the school was too narrow for the many cars that come to pick up and drop off students, and that parents often drive too quickly, double-park or try to maneuver around other cars.

It was not known, however, whether such problems were in any way responsible for the accident, in which police said they believe Maria Juarez, 50, of Anaheim mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, killing Bianca Perez, 7, and Nidia “Liz” Curiel, 6.

“I think it’s a terrible arrangement,” mother Bobbie Kramp said of the driveway after a parent meeting Wednesday at the school. “But I don’t know, maybe it was just a matter of time. Cars pull up. People get impatient.”

Some parents suggested more parking spots; others wanted more crossing guards and parking lot supervision.

Traffic safety at schools has become a bigger concern across the Southland as enrollments grow and more students come to school in cars instead of buses, law enforcement and education officials said.

For example, state figures show that the number of students enrolled in public school in Orange County has grown from 402,314 in 1993 to 500,079 last fall--an increase of almost 25%.

“The traffic has been increasing for us,” said Nancy Malone, transportation director for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. “Schools have been growing, and charges for bus service have forced parents to carpool or take their kids to school themselves.”

Though schools typically put portable buildings on campus to house extra students, seldom are they in a position to expand small driveways and parking lots built for a much smaller population.

“There usually is not enough room around schools for all the cars,” said Lt. Joe Klein, head of community services for the Fullerton Police Department. “There are hundreds of children, and parents can be a problem.”

Schools have tried to make safety improvements, including loading areas for motorists, safety brochures, and adding staff to direct traffic during morning and afternoon rushes.

Though some parents believe the drop-off and pickup routines are safe at their schools, others say the situation is more risky than people think.

“I’ve had to grab kids in two incidents and pull them away to keep them from getting hit by a car,” said Gary Adamson, whose son is in second grade at Golden Hill.

The school has tried to get the city to provide a crossing guard.

“I’ve complained to the police numerous times,” Adamson said. “They send someone when they can, but their resources are limited. It is absolutely unsafe.”

Where cars come into contact with hundreds of children, it can be a hazardous undertaking even under the best circumstances.

National surveys show that Orange County motorists are among the worst offenders when it comes to driving irresponsibly in school zones.

About 90% of county motorists clocked for the study exceeded the speed limits by 5 mph or more around schools. Nationwide, the average is 65%.

Federal statistics reveal that car accidents involving child pedestrians are the second leading cause of death for those ages 5 to 14. Each year across the country an average of 675 children die from vehicle-related pedestrian incidents and 20,000 are injured.

Though there have been near misses and minor traffic accidents while dropping off and picking up students around the Southland, police and school district officials in many systems had difficulty recalling serious injuries or fatalities at local schools except for the Anaheim deaths.

But in Santa Ana, authorities say half of pedestrian-related traffic accidents involve children walking within a few blocks of a campus--about 50 in the year 2000.

The Long Beach Unified School District began a safety program two years ago after a couple of children were hurt in traffic accidents, said Charles Clark, chief of school safety. The district’s Student Valet Parking uses traffic cones and student volunteers to block off a safe area and get children out of cars and onto campus.

So far, the program has been implemented at about a third of Long Beach schools.

The potential risks have prompted many police departments and school districts to put restrictions on traffic flow around campuses.

Some districts have separated the loading areas for school buses and cars to eliminate the long lines of motorists that used to develop behind the buses.

“People get excited in and around school areas,” said Clarence Hutchison, transportation services manager for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Parents are picking up their children, they’re happy to see them, and sometimes they’re more interested in their child’s day than in the traffic all around them.”

The district does not allow parents to bring their cars on campus to pick up or drop off students, said Willie Crittendon, director of safety in schools.

At Wild Rose Elementary in Monrovia, police have been warning parents who double-park while waiting for class to get out that they are putting children who might walk between the cars at risk.

The Irvine Police Department has received a $200,000 state grant to help develop traffic plans for schools. Among other things, officers have stepped up patrols around schools and created no-parking zones

At Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach, Principal Ron LaMotte goes to great lengths to move traffic through a narrow driveway/parking lot. The previous principal had banned parents’ cars from the campus because of safety concerns, a policy that led to a raft of complaints from parents and school neighbors.

Traffic now moves in a single lane in one direction through the parking lot, which has one entrance and one exit. Three adult monitors open car doors to make sure children step onto the sidewalk and do not walk between cars or buses.

In the afternoon, the rules are a little different when students are let out during three staggered shifts. When the biggest wave of students leaves at 1:40, students who ride the bus are sent home first.

Others waiting to be picked up gather in an area that is cordoned off by 175 traffic cones. Their parents, who must wait until all the buses leave, then drive up one by one to pick up their children. No traffic is allowed in any areas where children line up.

LaMotte, who often supervises the school’s crosswalk himself, said there have not been any problems with the system. But every time he hears about a tragedy like the one in Anaheim, he can’t help but wonder whether the loading zones are safe enough for the 695 students who come and go in shifts.

“I replay everything we do in my mind,” LaMotte said Wednesday. “I came away saying that I think we do a pretty good job.”

Like LaMotte, many educators across the county said they will probably reevaluate their traffic safety plans.

“Obviously, we need to move forward to see what can be done,” said Sandy Fiddler, a transportation analyst for the Orange County Department of Education. “It may turn out there is nothing anyone can do.”

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Times staff writers Sufiya Abdur-Rahman, Mike Anton and Christine Hanley contributed to this report.