As school-zone traffic stops rise, number of kids hit by vehicles stays steady

Clark County School District police did more school zone traffic enforcement at the start of this school year, according to a county official. But data shows no reduction in kids being hit by vehicles more than one month in.

As of Wednesday, 54 children have been hit by vehicles since the school year began on Aug. 10, according to data compiled by school police. The tally is one collision higher than recorded in the same period last year, when a record-high 432 student-involved crashes occurred.

“It’s still early,” Andrew Bennett, director of the county’s Office of Traffic Safety, said about the lack of reduction in crashes. “There’s still plenty to do to make sure that we have success in improving those numbers.”

Clark County’s Public Works Department made strides in bettering infrastructure in and around school zones this year, Bennett told the Clark County Commission on Tuesday.

Compared to last year, workers have installed and replaced more road signs, revamped more road markings and installed more sidewalk ramps, Bennett said. He added that school police this year have conducted nearly 40 percent more car stops and issued about 34 percent more citations in the first two weeks of school.

The changes are part of a series of proposals presented to commissioners in a July report that are meant to improve student safety in school zones.

Bennett said all of the 19 immediate safety proposals in the report have been completed or are in progress.

Through these proposals, Bennett said, Clark County has made updated traffic safety education materials and conducted outreach to youth who will make short videos to encourage safety among their peers.

As the year progresses, Bennett said the county will continue monitoring crash data and use it to prioritize traffic-safety efforts. But experts are also asking for changes at the state level.

Bennett said a bill draft request for policy related to e-bikes and e-scooters was created by the Joint Interim Standing Committee on the Judiciary. The bill draft request asks for state law to define certain e-devices, establish requirements for operating e-devices and create annual reports to identify and analyze crashes involving e-devices. Kids were riding e-scooters or e-bicycles in the majority of this year’s collisions so far.

“We look forward to tracking that progress during the session,” Bennett said.