Parents, supporters push for more safety after 3 Montgomery County students were hit by cars –

The incidents were entered into the school district’s reporting system, but there was no record of the incidents. Sent to families.

Bridget Howe, a fifth-year student at Pine Crest’s Silver Spring Elementary School, urges administrators to notify parents whenever a pedestrian-related collision occurs. Howe, 49, was first involved in pedestrian safety nearly 20 years ago after a student was killed walking to a high school in northwestern Germany.

Home told administrators that event messages can encourage parents to be vigilant in the school area and can inform parents of the risks their students run on their way to class.

“We really need everyone to be on the same page to share the importance of security,” said Home.

My daughter was killed before school. We must avoid such tragedies.

Chris Cram, a spokesman for Montgomery County public schools, Maryland’s largest school system, which has about 158,000 students, said he launched a series of campaigns focused on teaching drivers to drive safely at school. this More recently, Safe Streets for Schools reflect pedestrian and safety tips with cyclists Drivers – how to avoid turning near the school square.

“The bottom line is that yes, it’s a problem because we have very busy roads and a lot of children walk to school,” said Kram. “We need people to understand what they need to do to be safe: pick up the phone, see what you’re doing.

The school system also regularly analyzes the traffic routes around its buildings. Kram said the system would add a bus route from that side if the routes were too dangerous for students to walk safely. Kram said that although there have been several pedestrian collision incidents, there has been no increase in reports. The school system did not provide data on the number of reported incidents at this school. Year.

Cars continue to crash into students in the Seneca Valley and police increase their presence

The Transit Action Committee, a transit advocacy group in Montgomery County, is pushing the county school system and partners to build more pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, such as more sidewalks. This topic became particularly relevant after a high school student from Seneca Valley was shot and killed while on his way to school in 2012 in Germantown, Germany.

Miriam Schonbaum, a member of the group for nearly 15 years, said there has been an improvement in case management. In 2012, police investigated whether a 15-year-old student named Christina Morris-Ward was using the gateway. As they crossed the lanes south of Route 118, they noticed that she was wearing dark clothing.

A German-speaking teenager on his way to school died after being hit by a car.

“There is a shift in discourse now that children are children and they go to school as children,” said Schonbaum, 54. “The streets should be safe for children on their way to or from school.”

But Schonbaum said the school system has yet to make more significant changes to its infrastructure environment. He said schools are designed to prioritize students arriving by bus or car, not students arriving by bicycle or on foot.

In addition, the school system does not have a publicly available central reporting mechanism to indicate which roads are particularly dangerous, he said.

“I think the school system has not yet fully understood the idea that children who walk and cycle to school suffer on their way to school,” Schonbaum said. He said. “This is really an MCPS issue and an MCPS priority.”

Source: Washington Post

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