AMA Safety Patrollers back on the streets

“They watch and understand what’s happening with traffic in the area and they’re aware of their surroundings, ensuring that they’re making that eye contact with drivers and then helping the students to get across the street safely,” she says. “They use point, pause and proceed, just like we teach our pedestrians to get across the street that they point their arm and then they pause to check for traffic and then they proceed across.”

Purcell says school zone safety is not just the responsibility of pedestrians.

“So our drivers really need to be paying attention when they’re going through school zones,” she says. “They need to be watching, watching for pedestrians that are going to be coming out. They need to be making eye contact with pedestrians, eye contact with our patrollers and really be ensuring that they’re following those speed zones, putting down their devices and ensuring that their attention is on the road while they’re driving through school zones.”

Where parents are stopping to drop-off students is also a concern for AMA. Purcell says parents need to park in a safe location and not just stop in the middle of the street to let a student out or encourage jaywalking from students.

Purcell says more than a dozen schools in the city are part of the AMA Safety Patrol Program. She adds there has never been a serious injury or fatality when patrollers have been on the crosswalks in the program’s more than 80-year-history.

by Chris Brown

AMA Safety Patrollers back on the streets

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