It’s August in Wisconsin. The kids are rushing to check off fun activities from their summer bucket lists, making sure they urge their parents to fit in one last trip to Erb Pool in Appleton or Bay Beach in Green Bay. Parents are hunting for new clothes for the kids and rummaging through last year’s school supplies to figure out what to purchase for the new year. But who’s thinking about how busy the school zones will be, filled with carpool parents and kids on foot, and on their bikes and scooters? Parents need to make a safety plan for kids to ensure everyone stays safe amid the hustle and bustle of the back to school, morning commute.
Here are a few simple tips to keep your family safe during the school year:
- Whether your children are walking, biking, scooting or driving, remind them to pay attention to their surroundings and be attentive.
- If your children are walking, make sure they utilize sidewalks and crosswalks whenever possible.
- When your children are biking or riding scooters, ensure that they have a proper fitting helmet.
- If your children are biking, remind them to ride in the same direction as motor vehicle traffic.
- If you have teenage drivers, insist that they avoid using cell phones and wearing earbuds while driving.
- If your children are driving to school with their classmates, make a rule that they all need to wear their seatbelts.
- And, of course, remind your teenage drivers to obey all traffic signs, speed limits and other rules and laws that they learned about in driver’s education class.
We hope these tips will help parents and students in the Green Bay and Appleton areas to stay safe during the 2021-2022 school year. If your family should get injured in a motor vehicle, pedestrian or bicycle accident, please reach out to the personal injury team at Peterson, Berk & Cross, S.C. We offer a free, 30-minute consultation. One of our compassionate personal injury attorneys can meet with you to explain your legal rights and what actions can be taken to achieve a fair result.