On Thursday, March 16th, 2023 a student at West Brunswick High School got hit by a car while walking to school. While this student did survive with serious injuries, not all students who get hit by cars while walking to school have been as lucky. There has been an 11% jump in child pedestrian deaths in 10 years, and a large majority of these deaths are from children who were walking to or from school.
There are many reasons why students may choose to walk to and from school. Those who walk may want to save gas as well as money, they may not have a car to drive themselves or they think it’s just not worth it to drive the short distance to school when they live relatively close. In the afternoons, the car rider pickup line is incredibly long, so some people find it easier to meet their parents a little bit down the road by walking to them instead of waiting 20 minutes for them to make their way up the line.
While all of these reasons make sense, many students who walk to school do not take into account the risk. Around 100 students die walking to and from school each year, and another 25,000 students are injured. While 100 deaths may not sound like a lot to you, just remember that those are the lives of children and teenagers who had families that must live with their deaths every single day of their lives.
When thinking about these risks and consequences, walking to school sounds much more dangerous than you may have previously thought. If you want to avoid this danger then you can try other options such as taking the bus, or carpooling with a friend.
“People who walk to school could try to catch a ride with a friend, or take the bus home,” said freshman Jonah Hewett.
If you must walk to school there are also things you can do to help lower the risk of getting injured. For example, you could wear light colored clothing so that you are easier for drivers to see, and always make sure to look both left and right before crossing the street. While this may sound obvious, many students are distracted by their phones and are not completely aware of their surroundings.
“I’ll see people walking down the road and being on their phones instead of looking out for cars, and I don’t think that’s safe,” said freshman Amerius Revels. “You have to pay attention, and you can’t do that when you’re on your phone.”
Along with being on phones, students often use earbuds or airpods while on their devices. Listening to music can give students motivation to do their work while at school, but they should not be in use when walking home from school. Airpods amplify the risk of an accident because not only do they distract students, but they completely block out the noise around them. This is incredibly dangerous because students need to be able to hear cars coming in order to avoid them and stay safe.
“Always be aware of your surroundings, and don’t have earbuds in,” said Revels.
Although these are just small changes, some bigger changes could be made around the community. One of the reasons why it is more dangerous for students to walk to school is because there aren’t many sidewalks around. If more sidewalks were to be built, then students walking would have a safe path to school, and there would be more separation between them and the cars. The addition of crosswalks would also be a great improvement that could prevent many accidents, since the majority of accidents involving students walking to school occur when students are crossing the road. Crosswalks would allow students to cross the road with less of a risk of getting hit.
Whether you choose to walk to school, or you don’t have any other option, just try to keep the risks in mind, and be more cautious.
“Just be safe when you’re walking to school,” said Hewett, “You never know what will happen, but you can try to minimize the risks.”
