Shreveport Police Dept.

Date: August 13, 2004

Phone: 318/673-6932 Fax: 318/673-6933

Contact: Sgt. Jim Taliaferro, Public Information Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SLOW DOWN! SCHOOL’S OPEN!

Caddo Parish students will return to school on Monday, August 16^th and the Shreveport Police Department is going to do their part to ensure they arrive safely!

Members of the department’s traffic enforcement bureau will be out in force monitoring motorist’s speed and pedestrian traffic; speed laws will be strictly enforced and violators will be cited.

Motorists are mandated to use extreme caution when entering a school zone, slowing down to 25 miles per hour between the hours of 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM and 2:30 PM and 3:30 PM. As they approach and proceed through the school zone motorists must obey the traffic direction of the local SPD Crossing Guards. Failure to obey the lawful direction and orders of the guard on duty carries a separate fine.

The department also wants to remind motorists that in the event a school bus is stopped either unloading or loading children, all motorists, regardless of what lane you’re in, observing the stopping of a school bus, displaying the appropriate emergency lighting, must come to a complete stop until the bus is ready to reenter traffic. This specifically applies to those roadways such as the 1500 block of Milam or East and West 70^th which do not have a concrete or grassy median or any other type of raised lane separator. Any street which has a direct, uninterrupted path for a child to cross, motorists must stop to give right of way to the child.

Shreveport Police cannot overemphasize the responsibility of motorists to look out for children who are often preoccupied and excited as they arrive and leave school, whether via crosswalk or bus.

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View all SPD press releases at www.ci.shreveport.la.us/dept/police/spdnews