Hard to believe that summer is almost over and that we are getting ready to send our kiddos back to school at the end of the month. Summer absolutely flew by, and hopefully, you and your family had a chance to get in some serious summer fun. As we turn to the close of summer vacation, it's a good time to start thinking about all the children who will be back on our roads and sidewalks as they bike and walk to school. When the yellow lights are flashing, it's 25 miles per hour. When the school bus lights flash red, we must come to a complete stop. According to the National Safe-Routes-to-School Program, children are most likely to be hit by cars close to their school than any other place.
We need to share the road and remember that children are easily distracted by their friends and their phones. The best way to keep them safe is to stay aware and be sure to follow our own distractions to a minimum. Patience goes a long way and giving ourselves plenty of time to get to school on time helps us stretch our patience. Keeping our foot over the brake pedal as much as we can when driving in a school or school-bus zone can help us stop that fraction of a second sooner that we need to keep us from a potential tragedy.
Every school has drop off and pick up procedures, and it's essential that we all brush up on those rules as it helps keep the traffic moving as much as possible as well as helping to keep pedestrians out of harm's way. If this is your first rodeo, give yourself extra time and have that extra cuppa coffee to provide you with the patience and alertness you'll need while you're trying to figure it all out. You've got this!
At Auto Excel, we work hard to keep you safe on our roads and are primarily concerned when it comes to the safety of all of our children. Don't hesitate to come in for a brake inspection or any other sign of drivability issue that might keep you from being able to stop on that dime when that child walking to school unexpectedly ends up in your path. Working together, we can keep this community safe and protect our most valuable asset: our children.