School zones are back

Students are back to school and Lac La Biche County Peace Officers are reminding drivers that schools zones are in effect.

This means drivers must go 30km/h during these times, 8:00am – 9:30am, 11:30am – 1:30pm and 3 – 4:30pm.

Peace officers want to emphasize the importance of adhering to the proper speed limit to keep all members of the community safe.

“We just want to make sure the public is going to meet the 30km/h in those school zones because if we have our motorists out there slowing down, looking out for children at crosswalks, and in an around school areas it will help keep everyone safe,” said Chris Clark, manager of Enforcement Services. 

The reason why the speed limit is set to 30km/h during school times is due to a higher survival rate if there ever happened to be a collision.

A World Health Organization study found that when pedestrians were struck by a vehicle going 40km/h there was a 40 per cent survival rate, and when vehicles are going 30km/h the survival rate for pedestrians jumps to 70 per cent.

They also found that the leading cause of death for children and young adults between the ages of 5-29 is due to road traffic injuries.

Lac La Biche Peace Officers find roughly five-to-ten motorists a day going 20km/h over the speed limit in a school zone.

Clark also wants the public to remember the rules of the road when it comes to the school buses.

“We want to remind people to slow down for school buses. So that means slowing down and yielding if the school bus has flashing yellow lights, and coming to a complete stop if the bus has flashing red lights,” said Clark.

If motorists are caught not stopping for school buses while the red lights are flashing is $567 and 6 demerit points.

“We just want to make sure people are reducing their speed and watching for youth as well as their school buses so that students can go back to school and be safe,” said Clark.