Rice to Stress Pedestrian Safety on Walk to School Day
The day after two students were struck by a car near Kingsview Middle School in Germantown, Montgomery County Council President Craig Rice is planning to join members of the school’s community to urge drivers and students to use more care in areas where students are walking near schools. Fortunately, the students were not seriously injured in the incident on Oct. 7.
“We cannot say this loud enough, or often enough, but when young bodies meet moving vehicles, the young bodies always lose,” said Rice. “Protecting our children carries responsibility on both sides. Students must discard all distractions when they are walking and spend all of their concentration on the vehicles around them. And drivers, even when they are following traffic laws, must anticipate that young students too often are distracted, so they must pay extra attention when driving around schools.
Rice has been a strong advocate for student pedestrian safety and making sure students avoid distractions when they are walking. Last month, Council President Rice joined the launch of the YOLO (You Only Live Once) initiative to urge students to not use cell phones and head phones while walking across the street.
That event was held at Seneca Valley High in Germantown as a tribute to Christina Morris-Ward, who was 15 when she was killed by a car as she walked distracted near Seneca Valley High. Gwendolyn Ward, Christina’s mother, is expected to be at Wednesday morning’s event. October 8 is also Walk to School Day.
“It does not matter where to place the official blame when a young walker is hit by a vehicle,” said Rice. “The sure thing is that the student will be injured. So we will celebrate Walk to School Day this year by not only emphasizing the health benefits of walking to neighborhood schools, but also the need to make sure our walkers remain safe.”
Kingsview Middle School is located at 18909 Kingsview Road in Germantown.
My child was one of the students that was struck yesterday. Yes thankful they seriously injured. Both my daughter and the other student did all that they were taught to do no listening to music, not talking or texting, they hit the walk button several times and had on clothes that were bright for the eyes to see. They crossed when the cross walk gave them the ok. Yesterday does bring more light to what I have been complaining about for months. I’m just praying that out of this that the county and state will help step in to making all the kids walk to school much safer. 118 and Clopper Road, Schaeffer Road and Clopper and Kingview and Clopper are very dangerous roads to cross. There are no crossing guards for the students, no security for the students at those intersections and more needs to be done.