When we think about driving safety, we usually think about behavior on the roads—but that overlooks a key place where there are also problems: the parking lot. Every day, parking lots turn into dangerous areas due to reckless drivers. These spots made for safe and organized parking can become spaces full of crashes, reckless drivers and near-miss hits. Here at Yutan High School, the parking lot has become exactly that.
“My car has actually been hit by student drivers on two different occasions. One was a big door ding from somebody slamming open their door and hitting the side of my vehicle, and another one was a student backing into the back of my vehicle,” one teacher said.
This has been an incident not only for teachers but also for students.
“Last year, at the very last period of the day, I got called out of class because another student had rear-ended my car. When we went to my car, there was a dent in the back of it. Apparently another student had rear-ended it, not paying attention,” one senior said.
Walking through the parking lot before school can also become a chaotic thing. With parents dropping off students, new and experienced drivers cruising through the parking lot and kids rushing into school, there’s a huge risk for something bad to happen. There have been instances where students are walking in between cars and they walk out onto the main drive, not seeing a car coming.
Not only is it chaotic in the mornings, but after school is even worse. While students and parents are in a hurry to get home, they don’t always pay close attention to their surroundings. Plenty of times, I’ve seen kids run out in front of cars. Not only is it the people in the parking lot, though, but also the drivers. Many drivers are in such a hurry to get home that they don’t pay attention to their surroundings. These drivers end up pulling out, not seeing anyone behind them or even end up speeding through the parking lot.
“In the mornings, especially, there’s a fight to get spots in the front. Also, since I don’t have activities right after school, I leave right away and it’s kind of chaotic getting out. I always need to be aware of my surroundings, as there are lots of cars and kids,” one senior said.
In order to reduce parking lot dangers, people need to be more cautious when getting out of their vehicles, they need to make sure they are parking between the lines and they need to watch carefully as they are backing out. Not only this, but students and parents can drive slowly and cautiously to lessen the amount of near-miss hits. Even though it might take a little longer to get out of the parking lot, there wouldn’t be a high risk of danger. Students in the parking lot should look both ways before getting into their cars and stay cautious of the vehicles around them. Students also should walk out carefully and use the center lane that has been added to make sure they can cross the parking lot safely.
Not only can students and parents do things to improve the parking lot dangers, but so can the administrators. One way they can improve the parking lot is by having a faculty member stand outside to make sure the students are getting to their cars safely. Another idea to look at in the future is making the parking lot bigger or even adding a separate exit. Our parking lot is small, which means there’s more chaos. With a bigger parking lot and another exit, the parked cars could be more spaced out and the traffic could decrease, allowing a safer way for students to get to where they need to go. This would also benefit the home activities at the school. With a bigger parking lot and a separate exit, people wouldn’t have to park in the grass and it would be a smoother way for people to exit with less traffic and fewer chances for an accident.
Overall, Yutan’s parking lot needs to be a lot safer than it is now, and we can all take some responsibility in making that happen. Making these small changes could improve our parking lot one person, or vehicle, at a time and cause less parking lot danger.
