FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A change could be coming to school zones across Fresno, and it might be sooner than you think. <\/p>\n
A California law passed last year requires all school zones in the state to lower their speed limits from 25 miles per hour to 20 by 2031. <\/p>\n
While that gives cities five years to comply, Fresno officials say there’s no reason to wait. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have to wait to create safer streets for our schools, we can do that right now, today,\u201d said Fresno City Council Vice President Nelson Esparza, who\u2019s leading the push to slow traffic near schools.<\/p>\n
And while a five-mile-per-hour difference may not sound like much, experts say it can make a life-or-death difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, pedestrians struck at 20 miles per hour have about a 46% chance of sustaining a moderate or worse injury. At 25 miles per hour, that risk jumps to 62%,\u201d Esparza said.<\/p>\n
Parents at Boris Elementary, where kids are dropped off and picked up daily, say they\u2019ve seen the dangers firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it’s a safe area, but I do feel like sometimes it speeds through,\u201d said parent Anthony Bishop.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lopez, another parent, added, \u201cI do see people getting pulled over mostly in the mornings, yeah, a lot by a motorcycle cop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fresno police say enforcement is guided by both data and school input.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make contact with the administrators at the school to ensure that their enforcement efforts are directed correctly, not only at the real, what we think the problems are, but what the administrators think the problems are,\u201d explained Lieutenant Anthony DeWall of the Fresno Police Department.<\/p>\n
School officials are on board as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to be the one out front. Because when you set the standard, others will follow,\u201d said Dr. Mark Marshall of Central Unified School District.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ben Drati, deputy superintendent of Fresno Unified, added, \u201cWe have lost students to traffic accidents in recent years and even have numerous injuries, so we believe this will support us in making sure our students are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a recent afternoon, FOX26 photojournalist Ronnie Gerber spotted four or five police cars patrolling as children were dismissed from school.<\/p>\n
City officials haven\u2019t yet estimated how much changing the speed signs will cost. <\/p>\n
The issue is set for discussion at tomorrow\u2019s Fresno City Council meeting, where members will decide whether to move forward immediately or wait.<\/p>\n
Even small reductions in speed can have big consequences. <\/p>\n
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, pedestrians hit at 20 miles per hour have only a 1% chance of dying from their injuries. <\/p>\n
That risk doubles at 25 miles per hour, and jumps to 19% at 35 miles per hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A change could be coming to school zones across Fresno, and it might be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-194333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}