Sun editorial:

Keeping children safe

Legislators would be wise to maintain existing school zone speed limits

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

As any motorist should know, children are prone to dart onto a street without warning. When there is a large concentration of children in a specific area, as is the case at or near schools, the chances are greater that a child will suddenly appear on a street. This is why school zone speed limits of 15 mph exist throughout Clark County.

As reported Saturday in the Las Vegas Sun by Cy Ryan and David McGrath Schwartz, state Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming session of the Nevada Legislature that would increase those speed limits to 20 mph in middle school zones and to 25 mph in high school zones.

Another aspect of Washington’s proposal aims to clarify the meaning of “children are present,” the phrase that appears on many school zone speed limit signs. If lawmakers tinker with that definition, we believe they should settle on language that includes all children and is flexible enough to cover all hours of a school’s operation, and those times when the school grounds are used for other activities.

Washington said his legislation is not intended to endanger children, but we believe no sound argument exists to raise school zone speed limits. To do so would increase the chance that a child could get struck or killed.

Erin Breen, director of UNLV’s Safe Community Partnership, told the Sun that raising the speed limits for middle school and high school students would mean that “half of the kids hit in school zones will die that don’t die now. In a high school zone it might raise that fatality rate to 85 percent.”

Some motorists undoubtedly get frustrated by having to travel a mere 15 mph in a school zone during their morning and afternoon commutes. They will find in many cases that there are alternative routes with fewer such zones or none at all.

Let’s not go backward in the progress we’ve made in making the areas around schools safer.

Discussion: 3 comments so far…

By ShannonK

1/13/09 at 8:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

Who was the genius who changed all the school zone signs to "when children are present" and took off the actual times for each school zone? How much did that cost us to make these changes?
By KillerB

1/13/09 at 12:13 p.m.

Suggest removal

"All the children all the time" is no justification for this debate. Other than the utter stupidity of having to obey those signs at 3 a.m. any night, let alone on a school holiday like ALL SUMMER, the real agenda here is for cops to write tickets -- the new tax.

"We're just keeping you safe" is getting worn as justification for so many new laws with penalties.
By Esme

1/13/09 at 8:15 p.m.

Suggest removal

Why not install lights at all school zones? I always slow down anyway when going through a school. Before this change of "when children are present" I didn't want to take my eyes off the road to read the times which varied from school to school and find out if it was a year round or nine month school. I also found it interesting that there were always cops giving tickets when the school speed limit was enforced but students were not present. I never saw cops present when children were being dropped off or picked up.