Back-to-school safety tips for the road

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Back-to-school season is in full swing, but one thing to look out for while on the road: school buses.

“If the red lights are on and the stop lights or stop signs are out, you want to make sure that you’re stopping for those and waiting until those are deactivated. Make sure that you’re giving the school buses plenty of distance. Kids may be crossing the roadway and things like that. So we want to make sure that we’re protecting them and staying a safe distance away,” Casey Archey with Warren County Emergency Management says.

The most important tip, though, is to make sure to stop for those buses, and that goes both ways.

“Make sure you know the law. If it’s a two-lane road, everybody’s got to stop. If it’s a three-lane road, the people should stop. If it’s a four-lane road, not necessarily. They can check our Facebook page to look at some schematics on that,” sheriff Brett Hightower with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office says.

While on school property, follow the speed limit signs to make sure no one gets hurt.

“Speed limits will be reduced near school zones,” Archey says. “People need to be extremely careful around schools, school buses, school zones… slow down during the school zones, adhere to the posted traffic regulated speed limits along those areas as well,” Hightower says.

The key tool you can have while traveling: patience.

“When you look at Plano Elementary, there’s some issues on 622 getting folks in and out. You can look at Richardsville, has some issues out there at certain times of the day. So there’s many schools that can have some traffic related problems. So patience, giving yourself plenty of time, leaving for work a little earlier than you normally would,” Hightower says.