You can't say that I haven't warned you enough about student drop off and pick up around Michigan Schools. Twice daily there is a frenzy of activity involving hundreds of cars, kids, bikes and buses. In many locations this frenzy has an organization based on one guiding principle: what's most convenient for me right now. School administrators try their best to balance safety and convenience within their facility's means (both financial and physical), but even though safety is normally their primary concern convenience often wins. Sure, this problem is rooted from the same place that allows us to convince ourselves that losing 40,000 people yearly to vehicle crashes is just a normal byproduct of the modern world. Many parents are genuinely more worried about their child contracting swine flu from their day at school than being hit by one of the cars in these photos. However, a recent national report issued from Safe Kids USA regarding distracted drivers in school zones should have parents even more worried about this twice daily dose of driving danger. The school zone is a classic case of what is called compressing the danger.
So, the message for parents picking up kids is to have them wait an extra 10 minutes after school is out and then swing by to get them. At that point 90% of the danger will have passed. For dropping off kids, find the safest time and location to drop them off away from traffic, even if it is less convenient. For bussed kids, make sure the school is providing a safe and separate location for them to load, and supervision of that loading.
By the way- the safest way to get kids to and from school? Yup: school buses. School buses are built, regulated and operated by trained drivers for one purpose and one purpose alone- to transport kids. That cannot be said for any other vehicle.
You probably already know what I'm going to tell you about Distracted Drivers in School Zones, but you're still going to find it pretty shocking. That report from Safe Kids next post.
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