-Nolan Hiott-
It’s back to school on Tuesday for students in the Floyd County School System.
That means school traffic and motorists are urged to drive with a little extra caution.
“Especially during morning and afternoon times,” said Captain Ron Hunton with the Floyd County Police Department. “During the pickup and drop off times at schools, we will see an increase in traffic around the schools, and in general. In the summertime, when kids are out of school, a lot of people are traveling and vacationing, so you don’t see as many people on the road as normal. When school starts back, that will be in full swing, and of course, school buses will be out and about.”
Motorists should also be on the lookout for increased pedestrian traffic around the schools.
“Sometimes, it’s a child walking to school,” Hunton added. “Usually, those are not little kids who are walking by themselves, but they are walking with their parents. We have kids who walk to school in the Pepperell district. That’s usually a school zone that I am working at the beginning of the school year, so I see the kids and their parents walking to school. Sometimes, a place like Garden Lakes, Alto Park and different places like that, kids are walking to school.”
Of course everyone needs to remember that school buses are out.
On non-divided highways, traffic must stop in both directions when the bus is stopped.
“For example, North Broad, there is no physical barrier there, so you’ve got to stop—both directions,” Hunton stressed. “However, if you travel on, let’s say, Cedartown Highway, where there is a grass median—there is a physical barrier–then traffic just on the side of the road where the bus is has to stop. If there is just a continuous center turn lane, that is one roadway. That is not a divided highway.”
Most of the highways locally are undivided, including major thoroughfares such as Martha Berry Highway, and Alabama Highway.
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