Wildwood Drivers Urged to Be Aware

WILDWOOD — Now that Sept. has come, children throughout Wildwood can be found walking to and from school. While some of the city’s youngest students are bused to the Glenwood Avenue Elementary School Annex the vast majority of students walking, bicycling or skateboarding to class every day. Now is the time for drivers to be even more careful traversing the city’s streets, said city and school officials.
“We have two crossing guards,” said John Cummings, principal at Glenwood Avenue Elementary School where the city’s youngest students attend class. According to Cummings both of his school’s crossing guards are stationed at intersections nearby the building.
“We have walkers, we have bikes, scooters and skateboards,” noted Cummings. He added as students often begin as walkers and as they mature move up. “They do well,” he said, “but there are several four lane roads running through town and those tend to be a little scary.”
Cummings said as part of the primary school experience students are taught basic road safety through modeling and walking field trips.
“We start that pretty early,” he said. “At the annex they walk to the park near Super Fresh and the staff models behavior and talks to the children about it before they go out.”
According to Cummings, students begin walking to school around 7:30 a.m. Children who are tardy to school can be on the streets as late as 9 a.m. With dismissal at 2:20 p.m. from the annex and final dismissal at 2:45 p.m. at Glenwood Avenue Elementary, the principal explained children may be found walking home from school anywhere from 2:20 to 3 p.m.
With smaller children crossing streets and newer model cars now sitting higher than in the past lack of visibility, as well as distracted driving may come into play. “I would be cognizant that you have little bodies in transit at those times,” said Cummings.
In order to help students safely make their way to school Cummings suggested parents insure their child is not late. “Getting to school on time is key,” he said. “People see kids on the street and they recognize this must be a transition time for school. If a child is 10 to 15 minutes late, then they’re solo. I think that automatically opens them up to unsafe scenarios.” He added if a parent feels their child is not independent enough to walk to school alone then the child should walk with another child or the parent should accompany them or drop them off.
“School is back in session,” said Commissioner for Public Safety and Public Affairs Tony Leonetti. “There are now children in the streets. You need to be more aware of your surroundings while driving.”
“Our kids do well,” said Cummings. “They are survivors and they are used to being independent. In a lot of our families at least one parent is working one job, or even two, so what they’re able to do on their own is pretty impressive.”
That survival instinct and independence has little to do with a distracted driver. “It only takes a second,” said Cummings.