They’re big and yellow and hold the future.
School buses will soon be back on community streets and rural roadways — starting the first week of September for most students in the Lakeland — so get ready for them ... again.
Each year, the return of the new school year seems to catch some people off guard. School zone speeds, crosswalk awareness, increased activity around schools and playgrounds and school bus traffic – like provincial capitals, fractions and chemical reactions – are lessons that need to be learned each year.
But each year, school bus drivers and school administrators raise attention to near-misses, dangerous drivers and people who simply haven’t learned how to share the road with kids and school buses.
Starting in September, in every corner of the Lakeland area, more than 13,000 students will be returning back to classes. They'll have summer-fun stories to share with each other as they run to school, they'll be comparing new school shoes as they hop off the bus, and they likely won't be thinking about the driving skills of motorists around them. They'll be too busy getting to know their new classmates, and that's to be expected. It's not their job to make sure a driver knows the rules of the road; kids have their own lives to live.
Lesson time
With a few weeks still to go until the wheels on the buses go round and round, residents who aren't sure about anything that could jeopardize a child's life should take a few minutes to re-learn the rules, take a little drive around the community to get re-acquainted with school zone times and speeds. Get prepared.
Similar to the kids who will soon be sharing the roads with other motorists on their own learning journey, do some homework. A little preparation when it comes to school zones and school bus awareness can help make sure no one has to learn any lessons the hard way this year.
