BACK-TO-SCHOOL SAFE DRIVING TIPS

As we start the 2024-2025 academic year, we want to be sure that Bayonne’s children get to school as safely as possible whether they walk, take a school bus or public transportation, or get a ride from their parents or guardians.

The National Safety Council and Geico Insurance both offer some useful safety tips for back-to-school driving.

The National Safety Council reminds drivers:

• Don’t double-park.  It blocks visibility for other children and vehicles.  Don’t load or unload children across the street from the school.
   
• Carpool to reduce the number of vehicles at the school.
   
• Always stop for a school patrol officer or crossing guard holding up a stop sign.
   
• Never pass a school bus from behind – or from either direction if you’re on an undivided road – if it is stopped to load or unload children.
   
• If a school bus’s yellow or red lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended, traffic must stop. The area ten feet around a school bus is the most dangerous for children.  Stop far enough back to allow them space to enter and exit the bus safely.
   
• Be alert.  Children are unpredictable, and they tend to ignore hazards and take risks.

For driving in school zone areas, Geico’s advice includes:

• Slow down and drive extra-cautiously.
   
• When flashers are blinking, stop and yield to pedestrians crossing the sidewalk or intersection.
   
• Be prepared for kids to appear in unexpected places, like from between parked cars.  If they’re on bikes, prepare for them to turn in front of you without looking or signaling.
   
• If you need to use your phone, be sure you’re pulled over safely.
   
• Watch for kids walking while looking at their phones. 
   
• Don’t ever block a crosswalk.  It forces pedestrians to go around you and could put them in the path of moving traffic.

I would like to add some specific thoughts for parents and guardians about driving your kids to school in Bayonne.  Please do not clog the streets around the schools.  Do not block the intersections.  For safety’s sake, please make sure that your children do not run across the street through traffic. If you are walking your children to school, or if they walk to school by themselves, please cross only at corners and with the walk signal or the green light.

If we all follow these tips, the streets around our schools will be safer for our children during the new school year.