School Zone Safety | Advice & Reminders For Motorists, Parents & Carers - The Road Safety Office | SEQ South Region

School Zone Safety | Advice & Reminders For Motorists, Parents & Carers - The Road Safety Office | SEQ South Region

With school back for 2024, we need to keep safety top-of-mind when travelling through active school zones and around our school community.

School zone times have been standardised throughout Queensland to help motorists remember when to slow down.

The standard operating times for most school zones in Queensland are 7am – 9am and 2pm – 4pm, with some operating all day between 7am – 4pm.

Speeding remains a significant concern, contributing to fatalities and injuries, and police will be on the lookout for speeding motorists.

Keeping below the signed speed limit in school zones helps keep everyone safe.

This simple adjustment may have minimal impact on travel time, but has the potential to significantly contribute to saving lives.

Children's Crossings are identified by children's crossing flags, displayed near crossings before and after school hours.

When the crossing is supervised, motorists must:

• Wait until all pedestrians, bicycle riders, or personal mobility device riders have crossed the road and the crossing supervisor has returned to the footpath.
• Abide by the direction given by any official School Crossing Supervisor.

Please keep our children safe by staying alert, slowing down and obeying our School Crossing Supervisors who are there to help kids cross the road safely.

You can also help children become more road safety aware by:

• Showing them how to look for vehicles coming in and out of driveways.
• Discouraging them from playing behind parked cars, or with toys or balls, while walking to and from school.
• Ensuring your child knows the safest route to and from school – this is usually the way with the least traffic and the fewest roads to cross.
• Teaching your child to always walk on the footpaths.
• Showing your child how to cross at traffic lights when the green 'walk' sign is showing at pedestrian crossings, and when all vehicles have stopped.
• Showing your child how to cross at supervised school crossings when the supervisor has signalled it is safe to do so.
• Accompanying children when walking or riding to school until they are old enough to understand road safety – usually around 10 years or older.
• Teaching your child if they catch the bus, to never cross in front of or behind a bus; and to wait until the bus goes, before crossing the road.
• Making sure any wheeled devices (bicycles, scooters, skateboards, rollerblades) used to travel to school are well maintained, and that the appropriate protective and safety gear (helmet, visible clothing, knee and elbow pads etc) are used.

Visit the Street Smarts Website for more information about what to do at pedestrian and children crossings.

Kind regards

The Road Safety Office | SEQ South Region
Customer Services Branch | Customer Services, Safety and Regulation Division
Dept of Transport and Main Roads

by Canterbury