OETA Story on Police cracking down on speeding in school zones that aired on 8/12/09.

This is a story that aired on OETA Public Television's The Oklahoma News Report in Tulsa Oklahoma as reported by Angela Rosecrans and photojournalist Tim Carson. For more information or to contact us, please go to the new and improved www.oeta.tv The verbatim script follows below...
THE LIGHTS ARE FLASHING... AND THE SPEED LIMIT DROPS TO 25 MILES PER HOUR. IT CAN ONLY MEAN ONE THING FOR DRIVERS...




"to slow down it lets them know school's in session and they need to slow down." BUT EVEN WITH THE SCHOOL SPEED ZONE SIGNS AND A BIG RED STOP SIGN THE CROSSING GUARD CARRIES...IT'S STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR SOME PEOPLE TO SLOW DOWN IN THE SCHOOL ZONES.




"it should be but sometimes they don't even see it I've had them run over the tips of my toes." JOHNNY PECK HAS BEEN HELPING KIDS GET ACROSS THE ROAD FOR SEVERAL YEARS. AND HE'S SEEN ALL KINDS OF THINGS. HE SAYS WHEN THAT TRAFFIC LIGHT CHANGES... DRIVERS ARE IN TOO BIG OF A HURRY AND PREOCCUPIED.




"they don't pay attention they have more concern with their cell phone then they do with the kids across the crosswalk." THAT'S WHY OFFICERS ARE CRACKING DOWN OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS ON TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS IN SCHOOL ZONES. BROKEN ARROW POLICE SEARGENT ED FERGUSON SAYS HE TAKES HIS JOB VERY SERIOUSLY.




"when you have to pull those dead bodies out of the car it makes a big impact on you and this is one way that we know it works." HE'S TALKING ABOUT "OPERATION SAFE STREETS". A PROGRAM HIS TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT STARTED SIX YEARS AGO BECAUSE OF THE SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN ACCIDENTS OVER THE FIRST FEW WEEKS AFTER SCHOOL OPENS. IT'S A "ZERO TOLERANCE" APPROACH TO TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT.




"in the first few weeks of school we're gonna have at least 3 to 400 citations that are gonna be issued for various offenses ranging from speeding in a school zone to collission causing violations failure to yield improper lane use. There's gonna be a number of different violations that we're gonna see throughout this time period." DURING BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL HOURS THERE WILL BE MORE MOTORCYCLE COPS AND EVEN UNMARKED UNITS CATCHING VIOLATORS. THE OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY SAFETY OFFICE HELPS PAY FOR THE EXTRA STAFFING OF OFFICERS DURING THOSE TIMES. TICKETS FOR SPEEDING IN SCHOOL ZONES HERE IN BROKEN ARROW RANGE FROM 164-DOLLARS TO MORE THAN $464. AND THAT'S JUST FINE FOR SOME PARENTS DROPPING OFF THEIR KIDS.




"it's the safest thing we can do right now for our kids get them in the building safe." AS FOR THE MAN KEEPING THESE SCHOOL KIDS SAFE AS THEY CROSS THE ROAD... WELL, HE HAS A WORD OF ADVICE FOR THOSE FAST LANE DRIVERS.




"but you know everybody's on a time schedule anymore but yet if they took time to slow down and look they'll see more." IN BROKEN ARROW, ANGELA ROSECRANS, THE OKLAHOMA NEWS REPORT.

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