Stop on Red: A Plea for Road Safety

Imagine a bunch of kids on a bus, and the driver isn’t paying enough attention to notice that up ahead there is a stop sign. He never notices it until he's already run into another car severely hurting the little kids in the back of the bus. This is why we need to stop on red! Sometimes, we as people don’t tell ourselves to stop, and whenever it’s to late, there’s nothing we can do about what has happened. In the past few years there have been several killings due to bus driving and people not stopping when they see red. We need to stop on red to save kids and many adults around us.

In the past few years there have been multiple injuries and deaths due to people not stopping on red. More than 3.7 million drivers ran a red light in 2014 according to a study by the National Coalition for Safer Roads and 697 people were killed and 127,000 were injured in

crashes that involved running a red light. Between 2004-2013, an estimated 7,799 people were killed from red light running incidents, so as you can tell there are so many reasons why we need to stop on red. The kids that are dying could have been the cure to cancer. These kids are our future and when people are being careless on the roads, it’s causing everything in this world to go down hill.
Gabby was a young girl getting off of the school bus after school. The school bus stopped and a red stop sign swung out from the side of the bus to tell the cars driving by to stop. The person in the car didn’t even think twice about stopping and they hit Gabby getting off of the bus. They made a new bill called Gabby’s Law for School Bus Stop Safety. It’s named after the12-year-old Gabby Mair, who was hit by a car after getting off the school bus in DeBary in 2010. The day after she was hit she was pronounced brain dead. Her father said “she wasn't the first and she wasn't the last.” Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children age 4 and the second leading cause of death for children age 3 and 5-14 according to Erin Murray.
Red light running is the leading cause to all of the crashes that have been happening over the years.

There have been lots of crashes and lots of kids dying because of them. People need to pay enough attention to all of their surroundings on the road and what the rules are to driving. There was just a new law passed that you can’t text and drive which is one of the most common causes to reckless driving. Younger adults will be on their phones while they are in a school zone, not even paying attention to the speed they are going. There could be kids loading onto the bus and the person driving the car would have never known that they were until it is too late.

Very few people know about school bus safety and thats why there are so many kids being harmed. We, as young adults and even older adults, need to be able to know and understand why there is a law to school bus safety. The equipment on the bus needs to be up to date and we need to know how to use the equipment on a bus incase of an emergency. So we as people need to be emotionally and physically aware of our surroundings and every consequence to our

actions.