Children get to school safer with the School Safety Program

Protecting our children as they travel to and from school is a high priority at the city of Phoenix. After a tragic collision several years ago involving a young student who ran into a busy street against a traffic signal and past the out-stretched arms of a crossing guard, the City Council created a School Safety Task Force made up of individuals from the Police, Street Transportation, and Law departments, elementary school principal, assistant superintendent from the Paradise Valley School District, director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, volunteer engineering consultant and a parent volunteer representing an elementary school.

The Task Force developed a School Safety Program, which evaluates safety conditions at schools in Phoenix to see what can be done to improve safety at all 470 of our schools, and more than 1,900 of our school-related crosswalks.

The Task Force developed a program with 26 recommendations that included a combination of engineering, enforcement, education, as well as experimentation with new traffic control technology. In February 2001, the City Council adopted all 26 recommendations by the Task Force. The nationally recognized School Safety Program has provided the most significant improvements to school safety in Arizona since the inception of the 15-mph school zone in 1950.

In District 2, the School Safety Program:

As our children return to school this year, let's work together as a community to ensure a safe school year by obeying traffic rules, stopping for pedestrians and slowing down around school zones.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Peggy Neely represents District 2, which encompasses most of northeast Phoenix. She can be reached at 602- 262-7445 or via e-mail at council.district.2@phoenix.gov. Join Councilwoman Neely at her next Issues and Info Breakfast, 7 a.m. August 27 at Jillians in the Desert Ridge Marketplace.