On The Road

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Well it's that time of the year again when we bid farewell to the days of summer and prepare for the colourful season of autumn and with it, the return to school of many of our young folk.

Each year the Toronto Police Service launches one of the most important traffic safety campaigns called Back To School, designed to heighten awareness of the need to exercise extra caution when driving through school zones. The campaign will be a strong reminder on the part of all police officers to ensure drivers obey all the rules of the road, particularly in and around school zones, to ensure students, and every other user of our roadway for that matter, arrive safely to school and then home again.

Police officers will be on the lookout for motorists who speed in school zones where the speed limit is typically 40 kilometres per hour and will take a zero-tolerance approach to those who insist on trying to push a little extra speed to save a minute or two of travel time.

Officers will also be watchful for crosswalk violations, passing school buses when the lights are flashing (big fines and demerit points for that offence) and the usual stop sign and traffic signal offences. Motorists should be mindful that all moving violations carry an accumulation of demerit points in addition to any fine imposed. And speaking of fines, most school zones throughout the city are also designated Community Safety Zones where the set fines for any traffic offences are doubled for tickets issued within the zone.

With all that being said, students also play a bit part in their own safety and they too must be mindful to ensure they cross at marked crosswalks and obey all the pedestrian traffic signals.

It is equally important that young people walking to and from school as well as at any other time are aware of traffic moving around them, and that in addition to the motorist seeing them, students too must see any moving vehicles.

Parents are encouraged to spend a few moments with their family members or those entrusted to their care, particularly the younger children, and remind them to walk and cross the road safely, to look and point before entering the crosswalk and to ensure all traffic comes to a stop before they step onto the roadway.

This may seem like a lot of information for younger children and I would encourage adults to take the time and actually show the youngsters how to cross the road.

It's one thing to tell them how to be safe when walking to school, now combine that with actually showing them how to safely walk on or cross the road and you will have significantly improved their awareness for pedestrian safety.

Let's all share in a safe return to school this year and reduce the risk of an unfortunate or tragic accident by being mindful of our responsibilities when driving and our responsibility to educate any young folk in our care.