The first day of school is marked by lots of excitement by kids, which is why drivers are being reminded to slow down when travelling around schools.
“Kids are really excited to come back to school and sometimes in all that excitement they’re not really paying attention to what’s happening on the road and on the street,” Marilyn Embury Miller, the vice principal at Judge Bryant School.
The City of Regina has changed the speed limit in schools zones to 30 kilometres an hour from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
According to Saskatchewan Government Insurance, a driver going 20 kilometres an hour over that posted speed limit could face a $310 fine, and three demerit points on their licence.
"At 30 kilometres per hour, you are going reasonably slow and you should see anything that comes in your path if you are paying attention,” said Tyler McMurchy with SGI. “That’s another reason why we tell people it’s important to avoid distractions as you're travelling through school zones. Put down the phone, don’t pay attention to the coffee or the kids making noise in the back seat, and just pay attention to the road ahead."
The City has also made some changes to the distance of some school zones.
“One of the issues with having a really long school zone is our compliance is really low,” said Faisal Kalim, the manager of traffic engineering with the City. “We’ll get people that will drive 50 and then and people [will] slow down to 30 for the entire zones. There’s a dramatic speed differential there and that is actually more dangerous for pedestrians.”
