Full Notification

The Ashland Police Department reminds residents that school begins Monday, August 21 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 ensure the safety of students and motorists.
Parents and caregivers should keep these tips from the National Safety Council in mind when approaching school buses and school zones:
• Walk on the sidewalk, if one is available; when on a street with no sidewalk, walk facing the traffic.
• Before you cross the street, stop, and look left, right and left again to see if cars are coming
• Make eye contact with drivers before crossing and always cross streets at crosswalks or intersections.
• Stay alert and avoid distracted walking.
Motorists should remember:
• 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.
For more information about back to school safety, please go to the National Safety Council’s website https://www.nsc.org/community-safety/safety-topics/school-safety/school-safety-home?fbclid=IwAR2jsQOD8SqHT14WyCQY8dDVDyEvQSOSmpr9UwmHDGjRWiuVJ6lF5si3zp0