A student walks home from school, crossing the street, when a car comes zooming down the road. The driver comes to a halt and makes eye contact with the student, but instead of apologizing they honk the horn and swerve. When it comes to school zones, people don’t feel the need to slow down or listen.

According to Illinois Rules of the Road, the speed limit in a school zone is only 20 mph. The consequences of this, according to Drive Tide, are $150-$500 fines and points on your license, which can cause increased insurance premiums and possibly a license suspension.

Slowing down in school zones will prevent kids from getting hurt or dying. According to Illinois Policy, the number of collisions near schools went up, starting at 23% in 2021 and increasing to 67% in 2022. The fact that kids are having to worry three times as much makes it even more scary and dangerous. Also, since more kids are getting injured, parents are having to worry.  

Drivers should slow down in school zones because traffic violations are getting worse. According to The Daily Illini, the traffic violations are ‘’three times higher.’’ This shows just how careless people are getting when it comes to driving. Once again, this puts lives in danger. Kids now have to be more careful and can’t rely on crosswalks, crossing guards or for people to have common sense and stop.

There’s illegal driving going on, and drivers need to slow down and drive smarter. According to News Nation, nearly 20% of Illinois commercial drivers got their licenses illegally. This is a huge danger to children, people on the road and even the driver themselves, especially if the commercial vehicle is a bus.

Some might argue that not everyone drives unsafely and that it’s rare that people even get in accidents. According to Illinois Rush Hour, in 2023 there were almost 300 thousand crashes. From those crashes there were over 60 thousand injuries and 1,240 deaths. That’s about 5% of the Illinois population. 

All in all people don’t know how to drive, but it really doesn’t take much to learn the proper way. It’s putting everyone at risk when someone else is lazy enough to not care for the safety of others.