Students are heading back to class for the start of the new school year.
Guelph Police Service will be making sure the first day of school, and the rest of the first month of the school year, is a safe one. They are taking part in a couple of safety campaigns this week.
One is the Safe Return to School where police will patrol school zones during the month of September in an effort to enhance public safety. Officers will be conducting targeted enforcement as well as educating the public about the laws around school zones.
“We’ll remind motorists that the speed limit in school zones is 30 km/h,” said staff sergeant Mike Davis.
“Another reminder is where a school crossing guard has a stop sign up, the vehicle must stop and can’t move again until the crossing guard has cleared the roadway.”
The campaign will not only focus on motorists but also pedestrians and their responsibilities towards road safety.
“The reason we really target the start of the school year is because it is new to many students to walk to school,” said Davis.
“It is sometimes appropriate (for parents) to stop on a nearby street and have their children walk the rest of the way. This really helps ease up congestion in front of the schools.”
The other campaign is Project Safe Semester which runs Sept. 7 to 23. This involves the closure of Macdonell Street between Wyndham Street and Carden Street, and Wyndham from Cork Street to Carden on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Again, additional police, as well as city by-law officers, will be deployed during those periods.