Safety the topic on National Bike/Walk to School Day

School zones across the Central Coast emphasize safety throughout the school year but still end up becoming danger zones for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. Some of which can be students.

National Bike/Walk to School Day tries to push for safety each day it comes along and residents are saying it’s much needed–like in the area of Salinas High School.

“Some people are polite, some are not,” is how Marilyn Kjeldgaard describes drivers rushing through the Salinas High School area on school days. Some of them, of course, dropping off their students.

Malina Parangan was one of those students–she was getting dropped off not long before the bell rang.

“My mom chooses to drive just because it gets so dangerous and there’s a lot of cars coming,” Parangan explains. “There’s plenty of places to drop off your kids but it still gets really busy because there’s so many kids.”

The problem stretches across districts everywhere, which is why the push for National Bike/Safety Day began a couple decades ago.

Watsonville Police are participating in their own way, sending patrol units to keep tabs on school zone traffic as the day goes on.

Much of the issues involved pretty much sound similar from school zone to school zone.

“Drivers will stop to let the children out. Someone might honk and they speed and go around past them, real quick,” is one story we heard from Paula Beckman.

The last thing anyone wants is for a pedestrian to be hit by a car–something Kjeldgaard says has happened before.

She says it’s simply a matter of following the rules of the road.

“Drivers know they’re going through the crosswalks or parking where they shouldn’t,” she adds.

Watsonville Police provide some tips for drivers and children to keep them safe throughout this and every school year:

Drivers

Drive slowly and with caution in school zones. School zones have reduced speed limits (as low as 15MPH) when children are present. Do not text or talk on your cell phone while driving. Keep an eye out for children walking in the street. Consider using a route away from a school to save time. Look for school buses and know what to do around them. Overhead flashing yellow lights indicate you should prepare to stop, hazard flashing yellow lights means drive with caution and overhead flashing red lights means stop. The law requires drivers to stop in both directions until children are safely across the street and red lights stop flashing.

Children

Always use a crosswalk when crossing the street. Look both ways to make sure it is safe to cross. Encourage your child not to wear earbuds when walking, and test them on traffic rules, such as stopping at stop signs and signals. If riding your bike to school, ride single file in the bike lane with traffic. If riding on the sidewalk, look out for people walking. Walk to school with friends or in a group.