Be aware when driving

School boards around McHenry County are making decisions about whether to require students to wear masks as the school year begins. But, what we haven’t heard yet, are decisions to keep the kids at home for another school year.

Certainly, this is good news to parents and children. It also means that the school busses will hit McHenry County roads again. It also means that children will appear on or near the roads.

Some children are too young to appreciate the risks involved with automobiles. We can’t count on them to take appropriate actions to avoid auto-vs-pedestrian accidents that inevitably work out worse for the latter. In fact, we can count on children to often behave erratically around roadways.

Most children have never seen what happens when a one-and-a-half-ton automobile strikes a flesh-and-blood pedestrian. They have no way of fully comprehending the harm or the pain.

When drivers can’t count on children to take appropriate precautions, it’s up to drivers to take extra precautions to safeguard children near and on the roads.

Children have their focus on other things. They like to play catch and they don’t always make the best throws or do a good job of catching what they’re throwing. An errant throw can go out in the street and, without checking, without considering the possible repercussions, they may run into the street after it.

Children also like to play tag. Sometimes, it’s a rough spontaneous game of tag. They’re laughing. They’re having fun. But they’re not paying attention to traffic.

Often, children have to cross the street to reach the side where the school bus stops to pick them up. If they’re late, they may dash across the street with a focus on getting to the bus before it leaves without them.

In these instances, the bus will usually have the ‘STOP’ sign out. It’s a major offense to drive past a school bus when the lights are flashing and the ‘STOP’ sign is out. But, if a driver isn’t paying attention, they may miss the sign and the legal consequences can be severe even if they, hopefully, don’t hit a child with their car.

The point is that, as schools open, it’s a good idea to remind ourselves to watch for children on or near the roads whether in McHenry County or elsewhere.