by Suzanne Rose

Created on: January 24, 2010

School zones are there for a very important reason.  They help prevent accidents before they occur.  There are different things you should consider when driving through a school zone to lower your chance of encountering a problem.  The following are some driving safety tips for school zones.

Obey the speed limit

Even if you normally speed, you may want to consider putting the breaks on it during school zones.  You will need to be so careful when driving in a school zone, and even a modest amount of speeding can cause a huge problem.  Not speeding can also be beneficial to you in that police officers often target school zones to give tickets in.  In addition to obeying the speed limits, make sure to pay attention to other rules of the road, such as stopping at stop signs, not running red lights, allowing the children to have the right of way and so forth.

Avoid distractions

You may want to avoid other distractions while driving in a school zone.  Studies have shown that you are significantly more likely to get in an accident if you are partaking in some sort of distracting activity such as talking on the telephone, sending a text message, checking your e-mail, eating, applying makeup and so forth.  If you are doing one of those activities than at least some of your attention will be diverted from the road where it should be while you are driving through a school zone.  Avoiding these activities will provide a safer driving experience for you as well. 

Watch closely for kids

You will want to keep your eyes on the roads, keeping an eye out for children.  Remember, just because you follow the rules of the road doesn’t mean that children do, and there is always a chance that a child will accidentally go into the road.  Children might run into the road and you need to be ready to stop if you need to.  Don’t assume that the kids will stay away from the cars.  Also, be sure to keep an eye out in the areas surrounding the school zones as well because a lot of the children walk beyond the school zones and you obviously do not want to hit a child anywhere.  Make sure to give the children the right of way and do not drive too close to them if they are passing in front of you.

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