Excited Nebraska children will soon be headed off to school and for many, it’ll be their first time this fall. Law enforcement officials are reminding Nebraska motorists to be especially careful over the next few weeks, staying watchful for running, darting kids.
Child safety advocate Marty Reilly says parents need to have a talk with their school-age children. “They don’t always watch for cars so people driving cars need to watch for them. They sometimes cross in the middle of the street where they shouldn’t,” he says. “Obviously, parents should inform their children to cross at the crosswalks at the end of the blocks, but also just to be aware that they need to look both ways and drivers need to be sure that they’re watching out for them because obviously there’s going to be a lot more kids at certain periods of time during the day.”
The speed limit in school zones is reduced, but Reilly says in the first week of school, it may be difficult to drive at any speed through the streets surrounding schools. “If you’re going to need to go to work and go past those areas, allow more time because it’s going to be congested,” Reilly says. “There’s going to be kids who are confused. Parents are confused and aren’t doing it right, you might say, in the traffic flow pattern around schools. If you can find another way if you have to go past a school, find that other way. It’s more important that kids are safe.”
The Nebraska Department of Education estimates there will be some 443-thousand students enrolled in the state’s K-through-12 public schools this fall.