Got a question that has been bugging me. Thought I would post it here and see if anyone knows.
In most school zones I’ve seen, there are flashing yellow lights that tell you to obey the school speed limit while flashing, but there is also normal signs that say obey it on school days.
On weekdays that there is no school (like a holiday) the flashing lights are always still on. Could a cop pull you over for speeding if you are going above the school limit, while going under the normal limit on one of those days?
This is my first time posting a question, so I don’t know if I explained it correctly. Also, is there a FAQ for this message board? I haven’t seen any links to one.
If the lights are flashing you must do the speed limit even on non-school days. Chances are it is not just a school zone but a playground zone aswell and the speed in a playground zone is always lower.
Oddly enough, I have been obsessing over a variant of this question for weeks now. In my community the signs read, “Speed Limit 20 When Children Are Present”. I assume the intent of the wording is to indicate that the speed limit is in force when school is in session or when the school grounds are otherwise in use by little ones. But it seems to me that there is a lot of room for misunderstanding.
Does it mean the children have to be visible? If not, how can I possibly tell if children are present or not? If I go by on a school day and I see the teacher’s cars are in the parking lot, do I assume the children are present? If they’re in the building and not actually present in the school zone is the reduced speed limit still in force? And who qualifies as a child? If there’s an older teen-ager riding his bicycle down the road are children present? What if there’s a sixteen year old driver in the car ahead of me? Or a child riding in the car with me? They would certainly be present, but I doubt it affects the speed limit.
I realize some of these are somewhat contrived but the wording is so vague that unless a child were actually playing by the side of the road, if you were ticketed you could argue that you hadn’t violated the law. (Or maybe there has to be more than one child to qualify as “children”!) In which case the reduced limit would only apply during brief periods of the day.
Two cases that actually happen to me regularly:
I live near an elementary school. The kids get to school about nine o’clock and get out about three o’clock. So I know those are times when children are definitely present. But one of the school zones (by law they extend 300 feet either side of a school crossing) is partly down a hill from the school and the kids are not visible until you crest the hill. I always slow down, but if the driver behind me doesn’t know the situation he thinks I’m just trying to annoy him. And the kids really are at some risk – most parents don’t allow their kids to walk down the hill, they come and get them instead. I know I would if it was my kids.
I drive home by a park which is near a school. The school zone signs run along one side of the park. If I see kids in the park, especially if they are near the road, I slow down. But I don’t know if I’m being compliant with the law or just cautious.
I tried to look up the law in the state code but it wasn’t covered. Really. The only applicable laws were the ones about reducing the speed and the 300-foot rule. Nothing about when they were in force and certainly no explanation of “When Children Are Present”. I tried looking in the county code but was unable to get to it online. I know these same signs are in use elsewhere in the county but I don’t know about the rest of the state.
Sorry this has gone on so long, but I’ve been trying to arrive at a reasonable interpretation. I’m not going to go speeding through a school zone if I can see any kids, but am I in danger of getting a citation in some of the other situations I described above?
Thanks for the answers, but is there a cop or a lawyer out there that can tell me if a cop could pull you over when in a school zone but not on a school day?
Thanks
