Fulton County Schools, state education officials, and highway safety representatives are urging motorists to slow down and stay alert in neighborhoods and school zones.
Heards Ferry Elementary School in Sandy Springs hosted the AAA School’s Open Drive Carefully Awareness Campaign event on Aug. 1.
“In just a few days, millions of Georgian schoolchildren will be heading back to school. In some cases they started school already,” said Garrett Townsend, public affairs director for auto club group AAA.
He said a recent AAA survey revealed that 40 percent of motorists admitted to speeding through a school zone, while 30 percent admitted to using a phone or handheld device. Townsend said that’s way too many when you consider a mistake is likely to result in a serious injury or potentially the death of a child.
Townsend advised motorists to slow down, as driving 25 mph or less is less likely to result in an injury or a fatality. Drivers should eliminate distractions and put down their phones, he said.
He also advised parents to talk to teen drivers and ride with them to discuss safety issues, such as watching for pedestrians and cyclists, while in school zones.
“We want to make sure that we have every child get safely to and from school every day,” said Robert Hydrick, communications manager of the Governor’s Office on Highway Safety.
FCS Transportation Director Vickie Cross asked motorists for patience as the school district loads and unloads students, and to stop when the yellow lights begin flashing on school buses.
Mike Sanders of the Georgia Department of Education told motorists to slow down when approaching a school bus and allow a safe distance. Motorists must stop for a bus with flashing red lights, which he said is a sign the bus is loading or unloading children.
He said his department does a one-day survey of school districts in Georgia and in spring, 150 of the state’s 180 school districts responded, reporting 8,900 violations of motorists illegally passing a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing. Sanders said maybe even more alarming is that 168 of those violations were on the right side of the school bus, which is the side where students will be loading and unloading.
