Safety Patrollers on the job
Patrollers remind drivers to stop for students in school zones
With kids back in school for the fall semester, the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) is encouraging the public to brush up on their school zone driving safety, with school and playground zones back in effect.
Const. Rob Thibeau from the Lethbridge Police Service says with kids back at school, drivers need to be more cautious about driving around town and especially through school zones.
“They are going to be pretty excited to see their friends and teachers that they haven’t seen over the summer, possibly not paying as much attention as they should be,” says Thibeau. “Drivers just need to make sure that they are keeping an eye out for kids, especially in crosswalks, that is the reason why we have the patrollers out just as an extra reminder that kids will be using these crosswalks more frequently, and just one more measure in place to get the kids to school safely.”
The AMA School Safety Patrollers are outside the schools on the crosswalks every morning to ensure their classmates get to school safely. AMA has more than 16,500 patrollers across Alberta, who undergo training in proper safety patrol procedures.
The program has been running for more than 80 years and because of it there has been zero injuries or fatalities when a patroller is on the crosswalk.
“It is a really important program in the province of Alberta to have patrollers out on the crosswalk, it helps make crosswalks safer and it just helps students and parents get back and forth from school everyday safely across the province,” says Allison Pike, AMA Safety Patrol Co-ordinator. “It is a leadership opportunity that they have within their school and it is an opportunity to really learn that volunteering is really important value within a community.”
Grade 6 student Elin Steel from St. Terese of Calcutta School, in her second year of being a safety patroller, says she was inspired to prevent people from getting injured on their way to school from a video and comic book they went through in class.
“I thought that anyone could get hurt out here and I wanted to make sure that I could do something to stop that,” says Steel. “I am making sure that cars will stop for people so that they can cross safely, and in case any cars that don’t really pay attention to the crosswalk, they will see the stop signs.”
Safety Patrollers will active all school year, and drivers are reminded that school zones have been reduced from 50 km/h to 30 on school days. Taking your time, not being distracted and being cautious about kids running out into traffic is the best way to make sure everyone makes it to their destination safely.