Back to School Safety Tips

Please Drive Safely

With the new school year upon us, there will be significantly more traffic in and around school areas. Pedestrians, bicyclists, buses and cars all contribute to school zone congestion.

Motorists must exercise increased awareness in and around a school zone. When driving in neighborhoods with school zones, watch for children traveling to school. Children are unpredictable in their actions, and it is "YOUR" responsibility to anticipate and prepare to react to what they do. There are also lots of parked cars near schools and even adults are hard for motorists to see when they walk between cars. Potential hazards are much easier to see and react to when driving at or below the school zone speed limit of 20 mph. Slow down, stop to allow pedestrians to cross the street, and look for children who may run into the street.

In addition, children do not always follow the rules of the road. Often they enter the street from between two cars, attempt to "run" red lights with their bikes through intersections, and skateboard or walk into traffic without checking. Some parents cross the street wherever they park, instead of walking to the corner.

Special attention must also be paid to buses displaying flashing red lights when on an undivided two-lane roadway. In these instances, motorists are required to stop and wait until the flashing red lights are turned off before passing a bus.

Here are some simple hints to make going to school safer for all involved:

Please
Watch Your Children Around Water!

To see Valleywide drowning incident statistics, Click HERE.

Drowning is the leading cause of death in Arizona for children under the age of five.

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Rolling Blackouts

A rolling blackout occurs when a power company turns off electricity to selected areas to save power. The areas are selected using sophisticated computer programs and models. The blackouts are typically for one hour, then the power is restored and another area is turned off. Hospitals, airport control towers, police stations, and fire departments are often exempt from these rolling blackouts. These blackouts usually occur during peak energy usage times, usually between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays, but they can happen at any time of day. Blackouts may affect the same area more than once a day, and may last up to thirty minutes in duration.

Click here for more information on Power Outages and Rolling Blackouts

Africanized Honey Bees

Africanized honeybees are the temperamental cousin of the more common European honeybee found in Arizona. They often are called "killer bees", but in reality, their stings are less potent and painful than the common bee sting. Contrary to portrayal in the movies, these bees do not swoop down in mass causing death and destruction. They do defend their nesting sites very aggressively, sometimes stinging their victims hundreds of times.

Click Here to learn more about Africanized Honeybees