By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

Survey finds dangerous driving in school zones

Oct 18, 2016 | 11:56 AM

LETHBRIDGE – A big change in how children get to school may be creating safety concerns.

“If (parents) would drop their kids off a block away from the school we would be far better off,” Lethbridge Police Sgt. Wade Davidson said in an interview. He was responding to a poll released by the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) that said 64 per cent of Canadians have witnessed dangerous driving in school zones.

Davidson says schools in Lethbridge were designed during an era when most students walked, rode bikes, or took the bus to school. Now, many are picked up and dropped off by their parents.

“And they want to drop them off as close to the school as they can get,” Davidson said. “In doing so they double park. They let kids out in the street. They block crosswalks. They obstruct vision. They make illegal turns; say, if they’re heading eastbound and they make an illegal turn into westbound angle parking when someone else is backing out, or blocking the vision of somebody who’s crossing the street.”

While Davidson said Lethbridge drivers are pretty good about observing school zone speed limits, he’s seeing a lot of distracted driving.

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“The unfortunate thing is that it’s often the parents who are dropping off or have just dropped off the children at the schools that is of huge concern to us,” he said.

The survey found 30 per cent of drivers said they had witnessed a collision or near miss in a school zone. Other behaviour included texting while driving and running stop signs. Four out of 10 said they’re seeing things get worse.

Sgt. Davidson said kids are the most vulnerable pedestrians.

“They aren’t always aware of their surroundings. They’ll see friends across the street. They might be walking while using their phone,” he said. “The big thing is for the drivers to be aware of those kids and the potential for them to dart out from between vehicles unexpectedly, or the visibility of the crosswalk might be somewhat impaired and there could be a pedestrian in there.”

The CAA survey was released in conjunction wtih National School Safety Week.