By Alana Merritt Mahaffey
The return of students to school each year brings excitement and uncertainty, new teachers, and old friends. But with these comes the familiar problems: drivers and distractions. Add to this congestion and construction, and navigating the rules of the road during the off and on loading of schoolbuses can test the patience of the most seasoned drivers.
Hot Springs is a network of confusing, intersections, one-way streets, and pedestrian traffic. But as much as the city changes, the traffic laws around schools and buses don’t often change.
- Prepare to slow down with any flashing yellow light. These signify pedestrian crossings, school zones, and school buses preparing to stop. Like a traditional traffic light, yellow directs drivers to slow down prior to a school bus stopping to allow students on or off. The same temptation exists and drivers, trying to beat the light on a school bus before yellow turns to red, risk hitting (even killing) students.
- Keep in mind that many students do not have the experience of adult pedestrians, so drivers must pick up where that inexperience leaves off. While technically legal to pass a bus flashing yellow lights, it is ill-advised to speed up in order to avoid stopping. Saving thirty seconds on your commute can end the life of someone’s child.
- Law enforcement agencies across Arkansas caution against trying to go around a bus or continuing to move with the flow of traffic once a school bus has stopped and the red lights are flashing. For streets without medians, all lanes must stop.
- Local officers urge drivers to pay particular attention to known school areas and bus stops in their neighborhoods. Even checking a text or stopping an alarm while driving in your neighborhood can result in catastrophe. As summer ends, and the time of sunrise changes that simple distraction compounded by the sun, can lead to a wreck before you realize it.
- Above all, allow yourself enough time in these upcoming days to get to your destination without having to rush. Most of us have had children and understand the first chaotic days of the fall commute. But the chaos does eventually subside. With patience and focus, let’s have a school year with zero pedestrian injuries or deaths in Garland County this year!
