With schools back in session, AAA reminds drivers to focus on safety as school kids and school buses return to the roads.
According to AAA this time of year can be particularly dangerous due to young inexperienced drivers, school buses, student pedestrians and bicyclists all sharing the road in the early morning and afternoon hours.
AAA through its ‘School’s Open – Drive Carefully’ public awareness campaign looks to help reduce fatalities and injuries among child pedestrians and others.
AAA notes more school-age pedestrians are killed between the hours of three and four p.m. than any other time of the day.
AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Jana Tidwell says drivers can help prevent this.
"Pay attention, eliminate distractions and slow down in these school zones. Parents are driving their kids to school, kids are walking, they're bicycling, and then of course we have the school buses,” said Tidwell. “So there is a significant traffic pattern that's changing in the next week or so if it hasn't already."
Tidwell reminds drivers to understand what the school bus lights mean, for instance yellow flashing lights means the bus is slowing down and about to stop, with the red lights and extended stop arm meaning children are either boarding or exiting the bus.
Tidwell says brush up on laws related to school buses stopping to drop off or pick up kids.
"Motorists are also as they are approaching the school bus head on, on a two lane highway with no barrier in the middle they also have to stop. Those motorists behind the school bus and approaching from the front have to stop on a two lane road, with no barrier in between," said Tidwell.
Meanwhile on roads with a barrier in the middle or four-lane roads, vehicles going the opposite direction of the bus do not have to stop when a bus is stopped.
Parents are also reminded to not double park at school and to follow school pick up and drop off procedures.
