New website grades Santa Cruz County on driving safety in school zones
UPDATE: September 22, 2017 5:30pm
A new San Francisco based website is trying to make school zones safer for kids walking to school.
The website is called ZenDrive and calculates cell phone usage and driving habits near campuses by using driving analytics technology. It then gives each school zone a grade from “A” to “F” based on driving in the area.
A majority of schools in Santa Cruz County received B’s and C’s. However there are a few exceptions on each side of the grading scale. The road safety around Scotts Valley Middle School got a “D” and principal Mary Lonhart said it’s not surprising.
“Our yard duties and crossing guard duties and teachers that help out report a lot of concerning behavior and concerning incidents related to the traffic safety out here, so sadly no, the good news is that’s a really easy thing to improve if you just every individual driver would take a moment and think about how they’re doing their cell phones all those kinds of pieces that could really improve quite quickl,” said Principal Lonhart.
One parent who works as a crossing guard for Scotts Valley Middle School says she sees people speeding constantly, “they are just into much of a rush to get somewhere and even with the flashing lights that have recently been put in, which have been very very helpful, they just seem to not want to slow down when there are kids present and it’s kind of disheartening,” says Katie Payne.
Santa Cruz County received a “D” as a whole, Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills says the department is always looking for ways to improve safety around school. The city has deployed crossing guards to at least nine different heavily traveled area’s near schools, “We truly care about the community and we truly care about the passage of children to and from school and we are pleading with people to put the phones down it’s not worth it that’s why we put out crossing guards at nine different locations throughout the city to make sure that the kids get to school as safely as possible.”
ZenDrive has the goal of making school zones safer around the country by making people aware of the dangers in their area and hopes to inspire people to make changes in their driving habits.
If you want to see how school zones in your area compare click HERE
PREVIOUS STORY:
A new San Francisco based website is trying to make school zones safer for kids walking to school.
The website is called ZenDrive and calculates cell phone usage and driving habits near campuses. It then gives each school zone a grade from “A” to “F” based on driving in the area. KION’s Ashley Keehn spent time checking the website out and found that a majority of schools in Santa Cruz County received B’s and C’s. However there are a few exceptions on each side of the grading scale. The road safety around Scotts Valley Middle School got a “D” and principal Mary Lonhart said it’s not surprising.
“Our yard duties and crossing guard duties and teachers that help out report a lot of concerning behavior and concerning incidents related to the traffic safety out here, so sadly no, the good news is that’s a really easy thing to improve if you just every individual driver would take a moment and think about how they’re doing their cell phones all those kinds of pieces that could really improve quite quickl,” said Principal Lonhart.
If you want to see how school zones in your area compare click HERE
KION’s Ashley Keehn will have more from concerned parents and police tonight at 5 and 6 p.m.
