Full Notification

The Ashland Police Department reminds residents that school begins Tuesday, September 3 and school buses and children will once again be travelling our streets and sidewalks. Ashland police officers will be conducting proactive patrols of school zones and bus stops to insure the safety of students and motorists.

Motorists should keep these tips from the National Safety Council in mind when approaching school buses and school zones:

• Virginia law requires traffic in both directions to stop on undivided roadways when students are entering or exiting a school bus.

• School buses use yellow flashing lights to alert motorists that they are preparing to stop to load or unload children. Red flashing lights and an extended stop sign arm signals to motorists that the bus is stopped and children are getting on or off the bus.

• The area 10 feet around a school bus is where children are in the most danger of being hit. Stop your car far enough from the bus to allow children the necessary space to safely enter and exit the bus.

• Pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks. In a school zone when a warning flasher or flashers are blinking, you must stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk.

• Drivers should not block the crosswalk when stopped at a red light or waiting to make a turn. Do not stop with a portion of your vehicle over the crosswalk. Blocking the crosswalk forces pedestrians to go around your vehicle and puts them in a dangerous situation.

• Be alert. Children are unpredictable. Children walking to or from their bus are usually very comfortable with their surroundings. This makes them more likely to take risks, ignore hazards or fail to look both ways when crossing the street.

Children boarding and exiting school buses must be especially careful around the school bus “danger zone,” which is the 10 feet in front, behind, and on each side of the bus.

Posted school zone speed limits must be obeyed when signal lights are flashing. There are enhanced fines for speeding in school zones. APD officers will be conducting traffic enforcement the week prior to school to serve as a reminder for drivers to slow down in school zones.

For more information about back to school safety, please go to the National Safety Council’s website at http://www.nsc.org/act/events/Pages/keep-children-safe-at-school.aspx.