Students challenge drivers to slow down this summer

Students and staff of Windsor Elementary School want safer streets this summer, and have challenged drivers to slow down by adopting the Pace Car Program.

The school’s program began May 26 as part of Kids Safe Week. The program acts as ‘speed bump’ to encourage drivers to take it easy behind the wheel. Participants who sign a Pace Car contract receive a bright yellow sticker that will remind themselves and other drivers to respect speed limits.

Should participants find themselves inadvertently speeding, the pace sticker in their car window will caution them to slow down, Leslie Porter of the school’s Parent Support group said. “This is primarily about awareness. It’s easy to exceed the limit at times and this is a visual deterrent.”

Porter said the group has been concerned about the increased number of cars on the roads and the excessive speed at which they are travelling. “…Raising awareness of the tragedies that occur due to excessive car speed, we hope that the residents of our community think twice about speeding on our roads, while cautioning other drivers behind them to slow down,” she said.

According to Safe Kids Canada, child pedestrian incidents are a leading cause of injury-related death for Canadian children under the age of 14. A recent study confirms that drivers need to slow down. “Research demonstrates that a child hit by a car travelling 50 kilometres an hour has an 80 percent chance of being killed, while a child hit by a car travelling 30 km per hour has a 94 per cent chance of surviving,” Porter noted.

Students at the school will compete during the month of June to see how many drivers they can sign up for the program. “It’s really the students that have initiated this, they want to have a safe summer environment,” Porter said. Over the next few weeks, students of WES will participate in activities that will teach them how to negotiate the streets safely.

The majority of WES students walk to school and home each day. During the summer months, those same youngsters will be riding their bikes and walking to and from recreational activities. “We really hope this will slow drivers down for all areas of West Hants this summer,” she said. “It will be interesting to see what happens, what the response is.”

The Pace Car program is funded by a grant from Safe Kids Canada and is supported in principle by a number of local businesses and organizations, including the councils of Windsor and West Hants, and Hants West MLA Chuck Porter.