Safety in the Northwest Parking Lots

This year at Northwest High School, students have been driving unsafely in the junior and senior parking lots. There have also been numerous car crashes, despite school only being four weeks in. The accidents have occurred before and after school, in the parking lots and on roads just outside of campus. Because of these recent events, some people have been waiting in their cars for up to 30 minutes after school to allow traffic to clear out and help avoid getting in an accident, while others try to book it to their cars to get out of the parking lot quickly.  

  Lola Vogelaar is a sophomore at Northwest High School who was involved in a car collision during this school year. Vogelaar stated, “Don’t hurry to get out, everyone is going to get out eventually.”  In addition, Vogelaar also mentions that students should stay off their phones, wear their seat belts and be cautious because of how busy the parking lot can get. Lola has some advice for how students should act if they get in a crash. “Be nice to everyone because you don’t what they’re going through when they got in the crash,” explained Vogelaar.  She then goes on and talks about how students should also make sure they have insurance.

Sergeant Mackenzie Ferrara, the Sergeant of community outreach and a public information officer, talks about what to do if you see or are involved in a car collision. Sergeant Ferrara first explains how most young driver collisions happen at North 10th St. or in the parking lot and usually happen between 7:30 am to 8:30 am and 3:11 pm to 6 pm. She further goes on to explain that the type of collisions she sees the most are rear-end crashes. “It all goes back to the inexperienced drivers, it’s like bumper cars sometimes in the parking lots, especially in school parking lots,”  Sergeant Ferrara stated.  

She also explains how most car collisions are caused by inattentiveness. Examples would be people on their cell phones, looking for something in their car and eating. Another thing that causes car collisions is speeding. Sergeant Ferrara talks about how speeding can do a lot of damage to a vehicle. Some advice Sergeant Ferrara gives to help avoid car collisions is to always be aware of your surroundings, be attentive to other drivers on the road and make sure that parents educate their kids on safe driving. One thing she also strongly encourages is to put cellular devices on Do Not Disturb to minimize the risk of ending up in a collision. 

If someone sees or is involved in an accident, they should pull off to the side of the road the best they can, and no matter how minimal the collision is call 911 and wait for an officer to arrive or call (515)-222-3321 the non-emergency number to leave a statement if a witness is in a rush. One of the most important things to remember is never to leave the scene, no matter how minimal of a collision. Campus Monitor Cameron Hansen helps make sure students and staff are safe and also gives out parking tickets. He says the biggest parking problem he sees is parking lot placements. “We have kids parking in the wrong parking lots,” Hasen explained. This can be avoided by remembering that juniors and sophomores park on the right side of the school and near the tennis courts, while seniors park in front of the school by the front doors. Hasen explains that one of the best ways to avoid a ticket is by having and displaying your parking pass, which students can get by paying a $25 fee. With that, also make sure it’s on the rearview mirror and the numbers are facing the front of the vehicle and parking in the proper lot.