While students have been back in school for about three weeks now, on Wednesday morning CAA in partnership with Regina police and Regina school divisions, conducted a safety blitz to see how many drivers and pedestrians aren’t following the rules.
Over the course of two days, the results showed 194 school infractions outside St. Francis Community School and 452 outside Judge Bryant Elementary.
“The biggest things we’re looking at here is just a lot of the unsafe drop-offs, Regina Police Cst. Curtis Warnar said. “If you just stop in the middle of the road and you let your kid out, especially with the snow, someone might not be able to see those kids crossing the street.”
Other infractions included speeding, failure to stop at a stop sign and distracted driving. For pedestrians it was jaywalking and despite the weather, for cyclists some failed to signal.
“We know through our polling that school zones are becoming increasingly dangerous zones for our vulnerable audience- our students,” director of communications with CAA Saskatchewan, Christine Niemczky said.
“There are three types of road users, cyclists, pedestrians and drivers,” Niemczky said. “So for drivers, a risky behaviour could be distracted driving, speeding, illegal u-turns in a school zone- because yes, they’re illegal. Perhaps not stopping or parking where they should be and maybe not talking to the administrator of the school to see where are the parent and guardian pick up and drop off locations I should be aware of.”
Cst. Warnar said it comes down to people just not paying attention.
“The signs are clearly posted, people know where the schools are. A lot of people, when we stop them in school zones, are just saying ‘Oh I didn’t realize the school was there,’ and it’s scary when they say they aren’t paying attention,” Warnar said. “I think people have that mentality of it’s not going to happen to me and until it happens in their inner circle, where it’s either them or someone they care about, they just don’t get the message.”
In 2017, there were 20 collisions in school zones, resulting in two pedestrian injuries. More than 18,000 convictions for speeding in school zones were recorded, plus 71 convictions for disobeying school bus signals.
As well, from March 2015 until July 2018, 47,321 photo radar tickets were issued in Regina school zones.
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