Anyone who has ever had to drop off their child before school or pick up their child in the "car-rider line" during school dismissal should know firsthand how dangerous the process can be. Although teachers are generally staffing the line and assisting children getting in and out of cars, parents and other drivers who are not paying attention can pose a significant risk to children. In fact, last year 4-year-old boy was killed when he tried to run back to his car after his father dropped him off at a northwest Oklahoma City school. The father, who was unaware that his child darted back to the vehicle, ran over the child.
Children are prone to dart in front of cars without paying attention to their surroundings, and the young boy's death shows that everyone must be extra vigilant when picking up or dropping off children.
Of course, it is hard to be vigilant when you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, as is believed to be the case in a child pedestrian accident at a Yukon elementary school.
On Friday, a grandmother coming to pick up her grandchild at Central Elementary School in Yukon struck another child. The child was sent to the hospital but is expected to recover from his injuries, but police arrested Virginia Roberts, 68, on complaints of DUI and causing bodily injury. She was booked into the Yukon City Jail on $10,000 bond.
While anyone can be injured or killed in an auto-pedestrian accident, young children are often at risk because they are smaller and therefore less visible to drivers--as is the case in backover accidents--and because they are less likely to be aware of oncoming traffic. Through impulse, they may run toward a moving car when they are chasing a ball, or they may fail to pay attention to traffic when they are riding their bicycles or playing outdoors. Although most children are taught from an early age to "look both ways before crossing the street," many either fail to remember their parents' warning or they are unable to properly judge speed and distance of oncoming cars to determine if it is truly safe to cross.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's (NHTSA) 2012 Traffic Safety Facts sheet for pedestrian accidents, children are involved in a large number of serious pedestrian accidents each year. The fact sheet gives the following statistics about child pedestrian accidents in 2012:
There is a reason school zones have a significantly lower speed limit than surrounding areas. Combining impulsive or inattentive children with speeding or distracted drivers, and you have a recipe for disaster. It should go without saying that no one should ever try to pick up a child from school while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
