Back to School Means Sharing Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Edwin Vivas

Fort Lauderdale Customer Relations Coordinator

 

An estimated 56.6 million students are heading to class across the United States each morning and of those students, 25 million of them will arriving by some 480,000 school buses.

All U.S. Postal Service employees need to be extremely attentive when they are using their postal vehicles, as well in their personal vehicles. Below are a few tips to help prevent accidents with pedestrians:   
 
-- Always obey the speed limits. South Florida school zones are 15 miles per hour.   

-- Schools zones are non-passing zones. 
 
-- Always obey the school crossing guards who are there to safely guide all pedestrians cross on the roadways. 

-- Never pass a school bus with an engaged red stop arm and/or with the flashing red lights.

 -- Look between park vehicles and other objects on the road. Children have the tendency to dart in the middle of the road. On occasions, they could be simply just chasing a bouncing ball or wanting to go to a friend’s house. 

-- Use caution to avoid striking pedestrians wherever they may be, no matter who has the right of way.

-- Never hand mail to children; you do not want to encourage them to approach a moving vehicle. 

Now is the time to start being aware of our surroundings. According to a recent study by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly one-fifth of traffic fatalities among children ages five to nine years old were pedestrians. It’s also estimated that about 100 children in the United States are fatally injured every year simply walking to or from school.

 

As always, keep a safe distance between cars, pay attention to the road conditions, driving slower, be aware of your surroundings, yield to other drivers and pedestrians.