School Safety Expert Tip – Carefully Consider Traffic Hazards as Part of the School Safety Assessment Process

Steve Satterly has been working on a study contrasting the relative risk of death for fatal school-related traffic incidents and other types of safety incidents in relation to deaths from active shooter incidents in K12 schools.  The results of the data analysis are clear, far more people are killed in school-related traffic incidents than in K12 active shooter situations. In fact, even when counting acts of violence in all categories, the fatality rate for school-related transportation incidents is still higher. 

While school and public safety officials in every community should take the risk of active shooter incidents seriously, they should not do so to the exclusion of more common causes of death in American schools.

Though media coverage may intently center on mass casualty acts of violence, it is important to expend time, energy, and resources to address all forms of risk rather than only those that receive intensive media coverage.   One opportunity to reduce the risk of serious injury and death for students involves a careful evaluation of pedestrian safety as students arrive and depart from school each day.  Take the time to consider this very real type of school safety hazard.

About Michael Dorn

Michael Dorn serves as the Executive Director of Safe Havens International, a non-profit school safety center. The author of 27 books on school safety, Michael’s campus safety work has taken him to 11 countries over the past 34 years.