School Zone Accident and Injury Facts

As a parent, the safety of your children takes priority over, well, everything. Yet, despite every effort you take to protect them, the reality is they need to grow and live their lives, which means navigating the hazards of their world (school, transportation, playing areas) as well. Unfortunately, schools are not as safe as we hope them to be. For example, school zone accidents have been highlighted in the news for some time now, and are, more often than not, preventable.

As school zone injury attorneys, we fight to ensure that these dangers are minimized as much as possible by holding reckless people accountable for their actions. In today’s blog, we provide a quick overview on how to avoid school zone accidents, important facts and figures, and what to do after an accident.

How to Avoid School Zone Accidents

Everyone involved – drivers, parents, children, school and community leaders – need to have a hand in school zone safety. According to a 2016 report by Safe Kids Worldwide, there are a variety of ways to achieve this goal:

• Drivers need to obey the rules of the road, especially school zone speed limits. However, roughly 60% of school zones examined in their report lacked speed limits 20 mph and below. Establishing low speed limits and making sure they are followed is critical.
• Dropping off and picking up your kids can be chaos, so ensuring that policies exist for this activity (and are being followed) is a must.
• Placing noticeable signs, traffic lights, and crosswalks (only 70% of crossings had marked crosswalks in their report) can keep children safer.
• Spreading awareness regarding hazardous practices, like texting while driving or walking, to students and parents is incredibly helpful as well.

Our attorneys at Patrick Daniel Law also hope to deter school zone accidents by making a statement through litigation, namely that safe and injury-free school zones are possible, and community leaders need to do better.

Facts You Should Know

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), between 2007 and 2016:

• 281 school-age children died in school-transportation-related collisions
• 62% of school-age pedestrians fatally hurt in school-transportation-related collisions were hit by school buses or vehicles serving as school buses
• 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. saw a greater number of school-age pedestrian deaths compared to other times

Liability After a School Zone Injury

Determining who is at fault depends on the facts of your case. You may sue another driver who sped through a school zone, for example, or the school district in some cases. Fortunately, our experienced school zone injury attorneys are here to answer any questions you have regarding your situation.