As children across Ohio head back to school, families may not realize that the schools their children go to may be in distracted driving danger zones. As CBS News reports, a new study has found that school children are some of the most endangered due to the busy streets that oftenn surround schools.
The data found that nearly 90 percent of drivers were using their phones while behind the wheel. This was especially apparent near schools because one in three drivers was exhibiting unsafe driving activity in a school zone. While both pickup and drop-off are problems, the risky behavior worsens as the day wears on, making after-school pickup 40 percent more dangerous. Between the hours of 2 to 5 p.m., the roads around schools are the least safe, according to researchers.
The research was conducted by Zendrive, who analyzed the traffic data available around 750,000 across the nation. The researchers looked at phone usage behind the wheel, hard stopping and how quickly cars speeded up in school zones. They found that 1 in 11 public schools are on or near a busy road, and these streets are six times more likely to have accidents involving pedestrians than other streets. Data also showed that schools in more urban areas were most at risk.
Parents are able to search the data by state, county, and even school to find out the grade for their child’s school safety. Ohio was given an overall safety score of B, but 17 counties in the state scored as low as a D safety rating. Several counties were not given ratings due to lack of information.
