PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
A large proportion of the school grounds in Sandy City, Utah were designed years ago to accommodate a lower student population and volume of vehicular traffic. Large scale arrivals and departures of vehicles resulting from recent increases in student populations in area schools have resulted in pedestrian and vehicle congestion. The majority of traffic safety problems stem from poor traffic safety practices on the part of parents and students. Violations such as jaywalking, running between parked cars or stopped vehicles, U-turns, speeding and parking violations have had injurious and sometimes fatal results. In 1995 the Sandy City school district experienced 2,606 traffic crashes resulting in 908 injuries.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The Sandy City School District sought to reduce the number of preventable injuries and fatalities stemming from these violations by:

• Educating parents and students about the dangers of the violations occurring on and around school grounds
• Raising motorist awareness of pedestrians and bicyclists
• Increasing enforcement of designated traffic violations

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
School officials in Sandy City adopted a community-based program, the Parent Parking Patrol (PPP) to address traffic safety violations in area schools. Although the program was developed for use in elementary schools, it was easily modified to include junior and senior high schools. PPP is a flexible program which allows individual schools to address their particular safety needs. The program consists of a committee of concerned parent volunteers working closely with school administrators. Volunteers are assigned to specific areas around each school to identify traffic violations and approach offenders in a non-confrontational manner. On patrol days, the volunteers wear reflective safety equipment, and as safety violations are observed, violators receive traffic safety-related materials and a warning notice. License plate numbers of habitual offenders are reported to the Sandy City Police Department.

To introduce the Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety program throughout the Sandy City school district, officials at each school held a general assembly and discussed the program with students. Bicycle helmet use surveys were conducted, and students riding bicycles to school were required to wear a helmet.

Information bulletins were sent home to parents, and training sessions were held for parent volunteers. Patrols were held on a monthly basis.