Safe School Zone Essay

Safe School Zones Areas The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, provides guidance for motor vehicle safety. Unfortunately, the Center for Disease and Prevention projected that “In 2012, 4,743 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States. In 2012, more than one in every five children between the ages of 5 and 15 who were killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians” (Center for Disease and Prevention, para. 3, 2014). Many children are killed in traffic accidents when walking to and from school. Children who walk to school are expose to getting hit by a motor vehicle during high traffic and bad weather conditions such as foggy days. Some schools do not provide a safe school zone area for students who walk to and from school. Due to the lack of safety measures to provide safe crossing points and walking routes for student use, many students prefer to ride the school bus or to have parents drive

al., p. 153, 2014). Implementing infrastructural changes in school zones such as constructing cement-paved sidewalks provides safer walking routes. Schools should not rely on the traffic’s lights crosswalks for students’ walking crossing points. Other means of safe walking routes and crosswalks should be implemented in the school zone areas to alert drivers that students are walking to and from school. Priority and safety should be given to students who walk to and from school; the use of school’s cross guards alone is not sufficient to provide students safety. Hence, using safe school crosswalks such as marked crosswalks, school zone speed limit signs, and flashing beacons. The Pedestrian and Bicycle Center suggested the use of flashing beacons be used as