RICHMOND, Va. — As students prepare to return to school, AAA is offering important safety advice for both parents and children to ensure a safe journey to and from school.
Morgan Dean with AAA recommends parents of younger children walk with them to their bus stop before the first day of school.
"That walk will help them familiarize the path between their bus stop and home," Dean said. "It'll also give parents time to speak with their kids about traffic safety."
Parents should emphasize walking on sidewalks whenever possible. For neighborhoods without sidewalks, children should walk facing oncoming traffic rather than having their backs turned to approaching vehicles.
Dean also stresses teaching children to look both ways before crossing roads and to pay attention to traffic signals and sounds around them.
For older students, cell phone distraction poses a significant safety risk.
"Sometimes they wanna get in a little bit more on that phone before school starts, where they don't have access to their phone," Dean said. "You don't wanna see them walking down the road with their nose in that phone and not paying attention to the traffic around them. It can be a very dangerous place for them."
Dean urges parents to remind their children to stay focused while walking to school or bus stops.
"Remind them, distraction-free because we don't want them hurt on the roadway before they ever even get to school," he said.
Once at the bus stop, children should stand away from the roadway to avoid being too close to passing vehicles.
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