Utahns participate in Walk to School Day

LAYTON — Parents say they believe their children's route to school is fairly safe, but many adults choose to walk or drive their kids to school anyway.

"I feel safer walking them. Sometimes people don't stop at the crosswalk. And they speed," said Dannielle Reeves, as she walked with her daughter Faith, 9, a fourth-grader at King Elementary School in Layton.

Thousands of children around the world — along with parents, other adults and even family pets — trekked to school Wednesday morning for International Walk to School Day.

Dinora Cawley walked with her two kids, who are in preschool and first grade at King Elementary. The family dog, Hershey, a Lhasa apso, tagged along.

Cawley normally drives her two children the mile to school. "They don't pay attention. I wouldn't let them walk that distance," Cawley said. "And this road (Gordon Avenue)? Too busy." The goal of the annual event is to teach safety skills to kids as well as promote awareness to motorists.

At King Elementary, FedEx workers, along with representatives of Safe Kids Davis County, volunteered to walk to school with students. At Valley Crest Elementary School, in West Valley City, county and city representatives and FedEx employees walked with the students.

Valley Crest recently received a $10,000 grant to make safety upgrades through the "Safe Kids This Way" pedestrian safety initiative via FedEx. Granite School District also helped fund some of the project, which includes revamping the drop-off area of the parking lot; having two crossing guards at the busy 5240 W. 3100 South crosswalk; and forming both a student and community task force to promote safety education.

In Davis County, each morning and afternoon a crossing guard escorts groups of students across the hectic Gordon Avenue to King Elementary.

"I feel pretty safe with the crossing guard," said fourth-grader Ian Thurnher, 9.

Usually one Layton police officer is present, but for Wednesday's event there were several officers, along with Layton firefighters. Kids and adults carried yellow yield signs that read "Slow Down" and "Caution Children Walking."

Parents and safety promoters say they hope their actions will help bring awareness to everyone. "All it takes is one person to not obey the crossing guard and a kid can get killed," Reeves said.

As children were starting to cross that morning, a police officer hollered at a vehicle that blatantly drove through the crosswalk despite the flashing yellow lights and crossing guard holding a red stop sign.

Crossing guard Linda Baker of Layton agrees safety of the children is No. 1. "I do not want anything to happen to the kids," she said. "Of course, I don't want to get run over, either."

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