THE LIGHTS will begin flashing in Emporia’s school zones next week. It is time for The Gazette’s annual reminder about traffic safety.
Every year in this space, The Gazette reminds drivers to take care. Children are reminded to be responsible pedestrians and bike riders.
Consider that done.
This editorial is for another audience — those drivers with heavy right feet and short attention spans.
In Emporia, the speed limit in all the school zones is 20 mph. The speed limit is in effect whenever the lights are flashing or — in those zones that do not have warning lights — during the hours posted on the speed-limit signs.
Keeping children safe is difficult enough when people obey the speed limits around schools. Speeders make that much more difficult.
The Emporia Police Department is serious about protecting Emporia’s children. In the past school year, police wrote 100 people tickets for speeding in school zones. The school year before, 105 tickets were written.
Those tickets are expensive. Just like speeding in a construction zone, speeding in a school zone is considered to be a more serious offense than ordinary speeding. The punishment is the same for either offense — fines are doubled. A school-zone fine can get expensive very quickly.
Driving between 21 mph and 30 mph in a school zone carries a fine of $80 and $55 court costs. From 31 mph to 35 mph, the fine rises to $120. The fine for driving 36 mph to 40 mph (and you would be surprised how many people drive that fast in school zones) is $170. The court costs are always $55.
If that does not seem too high a price to pay to shave 30 seconds off an in-town trip, consider the potential embarrassment.
The Gazette does not report ordinary speeding tickets unless an accident is involved or the speed cited is so great as to make the offense newsworthy. But The Gazette does report every ticket issued for speeding in a school zone. It all goes down in black and white in “Daily Report” — name, address and speed — right where family, friends, neighbors, bosses and employees can see it.
The reason for the offense — ignorance, inattention or arrogance — does not matter. Once a ticket is issued, it goes in The Gazette, and no amount of pleading or bullying will keep it out.
Why is this newspaper so hard-nosed? Because “speeding in a school zone” is just a polite euphemism for “endangering the lives of children.”
And every driver needs to remember that.