The police traditionally intensify traffic control in the vicinity of schools during the first few weeks of children returning to school. The aim is to prevent road accidents and to ensure schoolchildren have a safe journey to and from school.
“It’s known that visible police control calms traffic and increases the safety of schoolchildren on their way to and from school,” says Chief Superintendent Tuomo Katajisto at the National Police Board.
The main focus of police control in the next few weeks will be on driving speeds and compliance with pedestrian crossing rules. Speeds will be monitored particularly in the vicinity of schools and in other risk places in built-up areas. Monitoring will take place across Finland this week and next.
The behaviour of cyclists and operators of electric personal transport devices as well as these road users’ compliance with traffic lights, use of safety equipment and factors causing distraction in traffic will also be controlled.
Attention will also be paid to vehicle safety, and stopping and parking in accordance with the Road Traffic Act when dropping off or picking up schoolchildren.
”The law requires particular caution where children are around and driving at a sufficiently low speed. This is especially relevant now that the very youngest schoolchildren who are not used to traffic again start to travel to and from school. People should also remember that by law, too, a child is a living warning sign in traffic,” Katajisto reminds us.
