Students at Bessie Nichols and Sister Annata Brockman Catholic schools in southwest Edmonton waved placards at drivers Monday morning to remind them to slow down as they pass through their school zone on Hemingway Road.
Grade 5 and 6 students staged the rally to help make drivers aware of Edmonton’s new 30 km/h school zones.
“You don’t really feel safe when you’re going across a crosswalk and a car’s coming up if they’re going really fast,” said student Charlie Sherman. “They could like slide on the ice when they put their brakes on and hit you.”
Since the speed limits came into effect last September, photo radar caught about 18,000 speeders in school zones, said Sgt. David Green.
One in six vehicles exceed school zone speed limits, police said.
In the Bessie Nichols and Sister Annata Brockman school zone, the violation rate rises to one in five.
“The amount of speeding that happens here is unreal,” said parent Dawn Ketchum. “It worries me because children need to be safe and it could happen in the blink of an eye and that would change lives forever.”
School zone speed limits are in effect between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on school days.
