For what he is doing, looking for people who speed through the 45 mph school zone from 7:30 to 8:30, it is one of the safer schools in the county because the school is off the highway and the most of the students come in on busses. You don’t see children walking with backpacks on the side of one of the most heavily traveled roads in the county.
There will be violators, however, people in a hurry, people who don’t pay attention to well-marked warning signs, flashing lights and the huge words “school zone” painted in the highway.
“All school zones are not designated at the same time,” Warren says as a crackle similar to radio static is heard from the radar unit in his patrol car. “Each school zone time is different.”
The speeds are also different. Between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., the Weldon Middle School zone is 45 mph where it usually 55 mph.
It’s not soon into the patrol Warren catches the first violator, a man traveling 58 mph. “He was in a hurry to get home from work,” the trooper said.
Then a woman barrels through the zone at 61 mph. Not only was she ticketed for speeding, she was given a citation for not having her child properly restrained in a child safety seat. “The child was not secured in the seat,” he said. Her reason for speeding? “She was just in a hurry.”
The next person came through the zone at 58 mph and gets a warning ticket. “She said she thought it was past 8:30. Some don’t pay attention to the time it is and some don’t pay attention to the school zone.”
The final person to get caught speeding through the zone is also given a warning ticket. Again, this person was not paying attention and was traveling 55 mph in the zone.
There have been no serious wrecks in area school zones since the patrol began its enforcement at the beginning of the school year.
Warren said it is important to slow down. “The danger of being in a hurry is you lose concentration,” he said. “You get tunnel vision.”
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