Man advocates for driving and school zone safety after personal tragedy

Concern implicit unsafe schoolhouse portion driving

Man advocates for schoolhouse portion and operator information aft idiosyncratic tragedy 03:17

A CBS News reappraisal recovered increasing concerns astir unsafe driving adjacent schools successful the United States. 

All 50 states person programs to marque schoolhouse routes safer and much than 17,000 schools person received authorities wealth for information upgrades, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports – but, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 1 successful 3 nationalist schoolhouse officials inactive accidental postulation adjacent their buildings "poses a threat" to students.

For Tom Didone, a erstwhile constabulary captain, driving information is personal. Didone was the constabulary researcher assigned to respond to each deadly car clang successful Montgomery County, Maryland.

In 2008, a teen operator with a car afloat of young friends mislaid power connected a winding roadworthy successful the county.

Didone responded to the call. One of the passengers successful the car was Didone's 15-year-old son, Ryan.

"My mundane regular arsenic the postulation information advocator took implicit until I saw the humor successful the backseat," said Didone.

Ryan died astatine the infirmary hours later, changing Didone's beingness forever.

School portion safety

The deadly clang has transformed Didone into a vocal and effectual advocator for operator safety, traveling to communities crossed the country.

He warns of the information concerns and vulnerability during the back-to-school period.

"Over the summer, radical make atrocious habits without the congestion astir schools. People are driving faster. They're distracted. Then each of a abrupt schoolhouse zones hit. You person much cars connected the road. You person kids that could beryllium crossing the thoroughfare and being precise unpredictable," Didone said.

In Spotsylvania County, Virginia, officials are trying to ace down connected schoolhouse portion speeding this year.

"We conducted a velocity portion survey successful this nonstop area, we noticed that successful a week we had astir 10,000 drivers speeding successful this velocity zone," said Jeremy Siefker, the manager of schoolhouse information and hazard absorption for Spotsylvania County Public Schools.

With caller cameras, they program to contented tickets to drivers going much than 10 miles supra the velocity limit.

Meanwhile, Didone said everyone tin play a portion successful keeping schoolhouse zones safe. Parents request to speech to their caller young drivers and everyone needs to concentrate, debar distractions, and dilatory down erstwhile they're driving by schoolhouse zones.

He hopes his lad is arrogant of his work.

"If helium looked down and saw this, that helium knew that his beingness meant thing and that I valued it, and I tried to bash the champion I could with it," helium said.

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