With our children starting another school year in a few days, its time to review an important law that will help keep our children safe — There is no parking within thirty feet of a bus stop. (OCGA Chapter 6 Article 10 Part 1 Sec 40-6-203).
While we do not want our children to get wet or be cold while waiting for the school bus, the safety of all the children is in the hands of us parents. While the bus stop is a great social scene, ensuring the people in cars can see the bus stop area without obstruction needs to be a priority.
In my own experience, my neighbors would have an open competition to see who could park closest to the corner, on both sides of the street. One day, I maneuvered my car between the golf carts, whose sides were down due to the weather. Meanwhile, I had my eyes turned left toward potential traffic on the one-way street.
As I completed the turn I kept my foot off the gas. When I swung my head to look forward after making the turn, I saw a young boy dressed in highlighter yellow standing directly in front of my car, eyes closed, singing. He could not be seen behind the golf cart that was exactly even with the corner. If I had applied the gas, he would have been under my SUV.
Some will argue that people in the cars need to be more careful. I disagree. Everyone needs to do their part to make our school bus stops safe. Even with care, accidents still happen.
Back in my hometown of Lake Hiawatha New Jersey, the main street near my mother’s house is lined with very old trees and the street can be very dark in the summer, even in the afternoon. One day, my mother was driving when a ball came out from behind a tree, wider than an oil barrel, followed by a seven-year-old.
The child ran in front of the car and was killed even though the car was “only” going twenty-five mph. Everyone agreed there was nothing she could do. There was no police charges and no lawsuit, just a dead child.
We must do everything we can do to keep our children safe. People need to go past many bus stops on the way to work and that cannot be avoided. We can pull back the cars from the bus stops complying with the law.
In my scenario above, I ran into the McIntosh resource officer at Starbucks and reported what I saw. Peachtree City police department came out painted lines on the curbs with green paint marking the 30 foot distance. Then the motorcycle officer was a regular visitor. That worked for a while.
We need our parents to respect the law. If some cannot, one focus of our police is keeping children safe. Tickets and not warnings may be necessary to change behavior.
[Neil Sullivan is a finance/accounting executive and CPA. He has lived in Peachtree City over 20 years with his wife Jennifer, a Fayette County History teacher and son Jackson, a student at Erskine College. He has been active in public school related issues in Fayette County, leading three E-SPLOST initiatives as chairman of Fayette Citizens for Children. He has appeared previously on these pages in letters to the editor.]
