School Will Be Back — Drive with Care

With school bells ringing for the start of the 2016-17 school year next week and the week thereafter, commuters will have to adjust to the prospect of schoolchildren and school buses returning to our streets.

All of us who drive in the early mornings on weekdays have to admit that not having to deal with yellow school buses, crossing guards, and children and their parents darting across busy streets for these past 10 weeks is in and of itself like having a vacation.

If you’re like us, you plan your commuting route during the school year depending on the school bus schedule — if we’re a few minutes late in the morning, we know we have to adjust our route to avoid the buses.

But our break from those travails of early-morning travel is now over — and once again we must exercise the utmost caution when driving during the morning rush-hour, when everybody is in a hurry to get to school, work, or wherever.

So we ask all of our readers to please be aware that school will be back in session shortly and that all of us therefore must be on the lookout for children on their way to school.

Taking a few extra seconds — even if those few seconds might turn into a few extra minutes — in order to exercise safe driving and to obey the laws regarding stopping for school buses and yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks pales in comparison to what could happen if our zeal to get to work results in a tragedy.