Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sept 05/01) - Swarms of excited children made their way to school last week as cars along Franklin Avenue crept slowly and cautiously.

Yellowknife's municipal enforcement may have played a part in that, but an incident on a crosswalk last May near Mildred Hall school may still be fresh on some drivers' minds.

A child was taken away in ambulance after correctly using the crosswalk along the busy intersection but was still struck by a vehicle.

The child was OK but deputy fire chief Mike Lowing said that was a lesson for everyone.

"If a child ends up in the back of an ambulance it is usually because of being struck while walking or on a bike," he said.

"If you had to prioritize (back-to-school safety concerns) pedestrian and biker safety would be No. 1."

Lowing said schools are high-traffic areas due to the nature of them. Parents and buses are constantly in the area to pick up and drop kids off.

"Make eye contact before crossing," Lowing suggested.

For Yellowknife's municipal enforcement division it is business as usual to patrol school zones during busy times.

So far the five or six tickets handed out have been fairly slow, manager Doug Gillard said. "It hasn't been too bad," he said.

Gillard pointed out that new signage may have something to do with those results. The typical blue and white school zone signs have been replaced with fluorescent greenish-yellow ones.

Yellowknife is of the first communities across Canada to introduce them.

Other safety concerns to keep in mind include clothing. Although falls are the leading cause of injury on playgrounds, strangulation is the leading cause of death, Lowing said.

"Anything that hangs off a child is a no-no."

Drawstrings, for example, can possibly get caught in bus or car doors, too.

Lowing also said 80 per cent of kids wearing bike helmets do so incorrectly. He welcomes all parents to drop by the fire department to have them checked out.

The last main area of concern is child abduction.

Lowing said to not put names on children's clothing, have a code word in place if someone besides a parent is to pick them up and for both parents and kids to be familiar with routes to and from school.

"That is especially important for kids new to the school system and new to the city," he added.