Local News in Brief : Traffic Safety Tips Given to Students

To cut down on traffic accidents involving schoolchildren, the Police Department’s Central Traffic Division sent officers to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses to hand out traffic safety tips to youngsters arriving for the first day of classes.

According to Sgt. Jerry Powell, Operation Save a Child focuses on 80 elementary schools in the Central, South-Central, East and Northeastern regions of the district. Officers greeted children as they arrived for school, handing out baseball trading cards containing safety advice and alerting youngsters to traffic hazards.

In addition, extra patrols have been assigned to prevent unsafe traffic conditions common during the beginning of the school year, such as double-parking and crossing in the middle of the street, he said. Beginning today, officers will discuss traffic safety at school assemblies.

Since the beginning of the year, Powell said, seven children under the age of 12 have died and 104 have been seriously injured in traffic accidents in the Central Division’s patrol area.