School-zone speed limits will be enforced year-round

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Starting this fall, school traffic zones in Flathead County will be enforced year-round.

In order to break some bad habits the Montana Highway Patrol has persuaded the county to post school speed zones all year long on county roads - not just from September through May.

The patrol talked with the county commissioners and the county attorney about full-time enforcement, state patrol officer Paula Williams said. They all agreed, so the county road department changed signs.

And if a speed-limit sign carries the caveat, "When children are present," it will be enforced from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Judge David Ortley said he would go along with that, Williams said.

The patrol wants the slow-down mindset to be ingrained every time drivers come near a school zone, Williams said, without having to check their calendars before whizzing by.

The hope is that the change helps avoid a rash of close calls and collisions at the beginning of each school year as drivers readjust. Besides, children use school playgrounds in the summer, not just when school is in session.

"Just slow down," Williams cautioned. Watch for children darting into the road from between vehicles, or wobbling along the shoulder on their bicycles, "because those kids aren't going to be looking for you."

Williams cited some specific zones:

. Cayuse Prairie School's 25 mph speed zone on Lake Blaine Road now is enforced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It used to be "when children are present."

. Helena Flats School's zone, too, is changed from "when children are present" to a continual 25 mph zone.

. Deer Park School's zone on Middle Road south of Columbia Falls used to be posted with beginning and ending times for enforcement. Now it's continual.

. Smith Valley School's zone sign on Batavia Road was removed, and now is enforced continually at 25 mph.

. Edgerton School's mile-long stretch of Whitefish Stage Road that is posted 25 mph on the north side of Kalispell is enforced "when children are present." It's patrolled by Kalispell city police, but if they follow the highway patrol's lead, that means 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

But, Williams said, school traffic enforcement extends to the highways where school buses travel.

When a school bus stops on U.S. 2 or other highways with five lanes of continuous pavement marked by a yellow-painted center turn lane, all traffic from all directions must stop - from front, back and nearby intersections.

On highways with a grass median or center curb dividing the traffic lanes, such as U.S. 93 south of Kalispell, only the lanes traveling the same direction as the school bus are required to stop.

And on all roads, stop signs mean just that: Stop. Completely. Every time.

"People blow stop signs all over the place," Williams said. "Even if you blow it slowly, you're still blowing it."

Williams hopes drivers will just do the right thing, not make excuses when they are stopped. She's heard them all.

"I know the road," she recounted. It's a line she hears repeatedly after pulling over yet another school-zone speeder, often with kids in the back seat on their way to school. "I know when kids are around," they'll tell her.

It helps, she said, to turn the tables and ask the driver to imagine letting others speed through a school zone when his or her own children are trying to cross the road.

"You don't see kids," she said. "There's always going to be the one that surprises you."

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com