The End of Summer Break – Let the Speeding Tickets Roll

Summer Vacation: For kids, it’s the time of year that never seems to come soon enough, and once it’s here, it fades too quickly. For those who grew up in Florida, it’s easy to look back on long, sultry days and look forward to the invigorating touch of a tropical breeze. Afternoon thunderstorms sprung up suddenly, cooling the days slightly and kicking up steam from the scorched pavement that only moments before had roasted the bare feet of children playing freely in close-knit neighborhoods.

If you were lucky enough to have a friend with a pool, it was a godsend. You made sure not to let any of the myriad squabbles that can so easily pepper childhood friendships flare up, lest you get asked to go swimming. Yes, those were the kids you wanted to cultivate friendships with. Hey, it may sound selfish, but summers in Florida can be brutal, especially if your parents insisted that you “go outside and play.”

Well, summers haven’t changed in Florida, but kids are now being offered a plethora of video games, summer camps, and a growing trend to keep kids involved in extracurricular activities. As a result, there are probably fewer children looking for respite under the leafy branches of a live oak tree or hanging around the neighbor’s house because they know the family often goes to the beach on weekends. Although those summer days may seem long and lazy, they are gone too quickly. Before you know it, your mom says it’s time to go “school shopping” again. That sure can take the wind out of a child’s sails like nothing else.

For some children, going back to school is an exciting time; for others, it can be an excruciatingly long nine months until the next summer break. Children, however, are not the only ones affected by the return to school. Parents often have to make adjustments to their schedules as well. Getting the kids to school, dropping them off at daycare, or simply making sure they get to the bus stop on time are all considerations parents need to have when allocating how much time they’ll need to get to work or get on with their day.

Parents aren’t the only ones to keep in mind that school has started up again. Anyone who drives, takes a taxi, or uses public transportation should remember that travel time will generally be extended if you are traveling on a route that takes you through a school zone.

All drivers should be aware of changing their driving habits. School buses can be slow and cumbersome, which can lead to a lot of frustration if you’re already running late. Many of us would simply like to maneuver around them and be on our way. This is fine if you are in an area where you can do so safely, but often that is not the case, and this is especially true the closer you get to a place where there is a school.

You may have gotten used to driving through a school zone where traffic is normal and no special speed limits apply when school is out of session. Therefore, it is very easy to forget that these areas are going to be substantially more congested than they have been in recent months. Those same heavy school buses are going to be trying to weave in and out of traffic to access the school and drop off students. Combine this with the cars and trucks of parents dropping off their children, and you have traffic congestion that will definitely slow your progress in the area.

In addition to potentially forgetting how long it will take to get through the areas around schools, it’s also easy to forget that in many of these areas, the speed limit can quickly drop from 45 mph or even 55 mph to just 20 mph. . Once this happens, you can be sure that there will be a police officer nearby who will not hesitate to issue you a speeding ticket.

School zone speeding tickets are not just another speeding ticket. Because school zones pose a much higher risk to all drivers, speeding tickets issued in school zones can cost two to three times the amount of an average speeding ticket. This increased danger is not only due to school buses, but also due to the increased volume of traffic and the presence of children. Anyone who is familiar with the behavior of children is aware that they do not always pay attention to the threat that traffic can pose to their safety. Therefore, it is imperative that drivers be much more aware of their presence.

Although these reduced speed limits exist for the best of reasons, the way law enforcement officers issue speeding tickets in these speed zones can be truly shady. As with other types of speed enforcement, police officers often sit in school zones in areas that are out of sight from drivers, so that when a driver realizes they are in a school zone, the policeman is already on the move to arrest him. the driver at full speed. This frequently happens even when it is obvious that the driver is trying to slow down. It is not always easy or even feasible to slow down safely when entering a speed zone where there is such a tremendous slowdown.

So now that the kids are back in school, be aware of the problems this can create for drivers and students. School zone speed limits are likely to be strictly enforced; School buses, by state law, will stop at all railroad crossings, and there are no exceptions to the school bus stop that allows children to get on or off the bus. Once those red lights start flashing on the bus, any attempt to dodge them can, and rightly so, result in a hefty traffic ticket. In fact, any of these violations can result in tremendously expensive traffic tickets, so if you receive a traffic ticket in a school zone or for any violation, call our office at 954-967-9898 for a free consultation.