School's back in action for 2022, and so are the 40km school zones.
For anyone that has school-aged children the rules of traveling in the vicinity of a school would, hopefully, be fresh in their mind.
The daily routine would have begun - packing lunches, polishing school shoes, ironing uniforms and maybe even hearing the words "do I have to get up yet?" would be back.
Making sure your young loved ones are safe at the school to drop off and pick up would also be a priority.
However, for those not experiencing such a routine a reminder may well be in order - if only to refresh the safety senses while driving around school zones. These zones rely on the consideration and vigilance of everyone to ensure that the young people of our community are safe on their way to and from school.
That means every motorist needs to follow the permissible speed limit between 8am and 9.30am and again from 2.30pm to 4pm each weekday. That speed limit is 40km.
But this is not all it means.
If you break the road rules in a school zone you can expect a greater penalty than is applicable in other areas. This includes penalties for such offences as exceeding the speed limit, using phones and ignoring parking regulations.
The rules apply to every single motorist, not just the parents who are dropping off or picking up their children.
They apply to the person who needs to drive through the school zone to get to work, the resident who lives next door to the school and the delivery person dropping off a parcel or two.
There are no exceptions to the rule.
It is also important to note that being a parent at a school does not give you some sort of exemption. It is not okay to park in a drop-off zone while you run in to the school office. It is not okay to speed off because you are running late for work.
There are no excuses.
Surely slowing down, parking correctly, or a few minutes of inconvenience because you have to park further away, is better than a lifetime of heartbreak and regret. This is what you would experience if your actions killed or injured a young person.
Let's hope the message of school zone caution embeds in your mind...and your behaviour. To coin an old phrase: "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret."
