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Show III y'LiJ : i "'"") I .... ' - ' n 4 (1S' : ' I : . -yir yl Fast Through School Zones By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL When it comes to driving through school-crossing zones with the warning lights flashing, Boun-Jiful Boun-Jiful area motorists should be "ashamed of themselves. RECENTLY, I had heard complaints and saw some ' driving infractions of the ' school zones in the area and asked Cpl . Roger Green of the ! Bountiful Police Dept. if I ' could sit with him "a spell" at ' ' the crossing near 250 West on 500 South. Now I wish I hadn't. What I saw was deplorable. I couldn't believe my eyes. I GUESS I was naive enough to think that we would see three or four maybe a half dozen speeders during the 30-minute time period just before be-fore noon when kindergarten children from Washington . Elementary School are return-: return-: Ing home. - But in the first ten minutes, or less, while watching for - speeders without giving chase we "clocked" on the radar 14 motorists exceeding the speed limit not by five or ten miles per hour but in excess of 12 miles per hour : over the 20 miles per hour speed limit. i IN FACT, four vehicles were caught in the radar at 38 miles per hour and one was clocked at 44 mph the latter being 24 mph over the speed limit. Later as the motorists continued con-tinued to speed down 500 South, one car was clocked at 47 mph and Cpl. Green said he once ticketed a motorist for driving 56 mph through a school zone. THINKING there might be something "a little haywire" with the radar gun, Cpl. Green explained that all officers test their radar with a tuning fork before and after each apprehension of a motorist and before each sitting of radar. In this case, the radar was tested with two different speed tuning forks and each time the radar device was correct to the mile. "WE DON'T enjoy giving tickets," said Cpl. Green, "but you can see for yourself what happens at school crossings. cros-sings. It just makes your blood boil to see how little respect some motorists have for the safety of our children." Just to make a point clear, it was determined before we ever set up the radar that the lights were flashing on both ends of the "school zone" and that orange cone-shaped stands were placed in the crosswalk. Also, the crossing guard was busy going back and forth across 500 South while motorists were speeding by. IT MUST also be noted that the radar gun is aimed at the crossing- not before or after the crossing as many motorists will argue. This means that the recorded time on the radar is what the vehicle is traveling as it passes through the crosswalk, cross-walk, Cpl. Green explained. It was obvious that many of the cars that passed through the school zone that day I was running radar with Cpl. Green could not have stopped for a child or crossing guard in an emergency. Some of the vehicles vehi-cles were actually passing other vehicles that had slowed for the crossing and they would have hit and possibly killed any child in its path. SINCE WE were there to record re-cord speeds and get an overall picture of what it's like to see motorists drive through school crossings, we gave chase for only one motorist who was exceeding ex-ceeding the speed limit by 18 miles per hour. The motorist from West Bountiful was not aware of her speed through the crossing, nor was she aware that lights were flashing and children were in the area. In fact, she was not aware of being pursued pur-sued by a police car, with lights flashing, until the siren was turned on west of Interstate 15 on 500 South. WE WERE parked in the east driveway of Robintino's and could be easily seen by motorists approaching the school zone from the west. But some cars that had sped through the crossing from the ' east, knowing that they had exceeded ex-ceeded the speed limit, didn't slow down even after looking over at us. "It makes you wonder, doesn't it?" Cpl. Green asked of me. I had to agree and shook my head in amazement. A FEW minutes later, Officer Offic-er Roger Closen, who was off duty at the time, joined us. He admitted to being a stickler at crossings "because so many little lives are at stake." "I don't have any qualms about writing tickets for motorists who speed through school crossing zones," said Officer Closen. "Motorists should be thinking of the safety of these children but in many cases their minds are so far away from driving that they aren't thinking of anything, let alone a little child darting or walking in front of them. Then it's too late." CPL. GREEN added that "we all make mistakes" and that receiving a citation is a reminder re-minder that we have done wrong and should strive to improve im-prove our driving habits. "Most motorists are really concerned but just get lax in their driving," he said. "When they are caught, they usually admit their guilt and pledge to do better. But if a child is hit, it's the innocent youngster that suffers." CPL. GREEN emphasized that radar is an effective, and accurate means of determining speed.-The radar gun actually calculates the actual speed and that speed is locked into the radar device for a motorist to see if he or she desires. He also stressed that he, and most other officers running radar, will not ticket a motorist unless they (officers) actually witness the car in question speeding. "WE WANT a visual observation obser-vation of the speeding incident, inci-dent, not just hear the beeper (which is activated when a car exceeds a specific speed) before be-fore we write a ticket," he said. Cpl. Green and Officer Closen agreed that 500 South is usually the worst site for school crossing violators but that several other crossings in the city are also notorious for speeders. CHILDREN, they said, have been hit at several crossings cros-sings and a crossing guard was struck earlier this year. Thus, the officers of Bountiful Bounti-ful Police Dept. ask local motorists to include among their New Year's resolutions: SLOW DOWN to 20 miles cr hour at school crossings. |
