Police, school district urge traffic safety as children return to classes

Just days before students, parents and staff return for the start of the school year, Modesto City Schools Superintendent Pam Able and police Chief Galen Carroll met outside quiet James Marshall Elementary School to film a message about traffic safety.

In a video to be posted on the district’s website and Facebook and Twitter accounts, the two urged parents to follow schools’ student dropoff and pickup procedures.

“Obey the safety patrol at all times,” Carroll says in the video. “They are trained on the fundamentals of traffic safety. If walking your child to school grounds, park and cross the street legally. ... Walkers should cross only at crosswalks and should be sure to make eye contact with drivers while crossing.”

“Do not stop in the street to let children out,” Able says. “Pull completely to the side of the road.”

These are basics that parents-motorists should know, but “the start of school always is a hectic time of year,” said Modesto City Schools spokeswoman Becky Fortuna, so the police and school district felt it was important to issue a timely reminder.

Each school has its own specific procedures for drop-off and pickup, Able said, and she encourages families to attend the districtwide back-to-school night Aug. 20 for details.

The video will be shown at schools that night, Fortuna said, and the district hopes to have it completed by Friday to post online.

The Modesto City Schools academic year begins Monday, and Carroll said police will step up patrols in school zones the first couple of weeks to ensure safety and issue citations to promote drivers’ long-term compliance.

“That’s why there are school zones – to get people to slow down,” the chief said. Drivers can’t assume children are paying attention to their surroundings and behaving safely. “We try to tell them, but they’re kids.”

Hazardous situations arise when parents get frustrated by backed-up traffic in front of schools and let their children out in the street, Carroll said. The problem is made worse because drivers just trying to get through the school zone also get impatient.

At a couple of schools, the speed limit recently was reduced from 25 to 15 mph at the request of concerned families, the chief said.

“The ones lowered to 15 are on streets like this, where people don’t slow down normally,” he said, gesturing toward Sutter Avenue, which runs in front of Marshall Elementary.

“Fortunately,” Carroll said, “There are not a ton of accidents with kids. Really, the bigger problem is where parents are choosing to stop and let their kids out. The kids think that because they see the cars, the drivers see them.”

Many children bike to school, and Carroll said parents should remind them to obey the rules of the road. Too many don’t stop at stop signs or ride against traffic, he said, and don’t wear helmets, though the law requires it of those under 18.

Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves said that on Monday, officers will step up bike and pedestrian safety enforcement. The department has mapped out locations over the past year where pedestrian and bike collisions have occurred, along with the violations that led to those crashes. Extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas where such crashes occur.

Special attention will be directed toward drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and any other dangerous violation.

Additionally, they will take action over observed violations when pedestrians cross the street illegally or fail to yield to drivers who have the right of way. Bike riders will be stopped and cited when they fail to follow the same traffic laws that apply to motorists.

Bicycle and pedestrian fatalities are rising in California as more people use non-motorized means of transportation, Graves said in a news release. This year alone, four out of the six fatal accidents in Modesto involved pedestrians, she said.

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Police, school district urge traffic safety as children return to classes."