Gleaming shoes. Clean backpacks. Sharp uniforms. It’s that time of year again – the beginning of the school year, when children return to their places of education with a fresh bounce in their step and parents pray for their academic and social success.

What often gets overlooked, but is of paramount importance, is ensuring that our children are afforded the ability to stay safe while going to and from school.

We live in a hectic world. We all have jobs, schedules and responsibilities. There are times when these matters weigh so heavily on our minds that there is barely room for much else. And this is something that each year causes far too many close calls in Lakewood with regards to safety on the roads.

While I try to keep my time on Lakewood roads to a minimum, on most days I pass through multiple areas of town, often at the time when children are being picked up or dropped off by their school buses. Getting stuck in traffic for what feels like an eternity when buses keep stopping to pick up or drop kids off can become quite stressful. But that way that drivers often react is disturbing, to put it mildly.

There are far too many times when a car will swerve around a bus with its red lights flashing, or completely ignore it when coming from the opposite direction. I don’t go around looking for such instances, but it obviously happens enough that I’ve seen it occur on more than one occasion. Each time I witness it, I cringe, hoping a child does not get in the way of that car.

Driving on Lakewood roads is treacherous enough as it is. Every day there are accidents that happen due to a driver’s attention being elsewhere, or simple recklessness. That is an issue upon itself. But when there are children trying to get on and off their buses, the danger multiplies exponentially.

A child’s life may seem to be far simpler than ours. They don’t have bills to pay, a family to feed, and the dozens of other stressors that are always with us. But for where they are holding in life, their days are often full. They have social groups to keep up with, they have tests to worry about, and so on. We should at least try to give them safety when they’re going about their daily lives. It isn’t fair to expect an eight-year-old to walk through an obstacle course of speeding cars on his or her way to school.

Some things always need bettering. Safety on the roads is one of them. And being safe for the sake of our kids should be a priority of the highest order. This year, let’s focus on doing just that. We don’t need another tragedy in town.