Thursday morning, Fairview Elementary’s School Resource Officer (SRO) was hit by a car mirror while she was directing traffic. On Friday, the HCSO ramped up its presence in the FES school zone to remind drivers of something important: slow down.
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office was unable to catch up to the driver whose car mirror hit her Thursday, but Deputy SRO Gonzalez was out directing traffic again Friday. This time, though, she had backup as HCSO officers sat along Cannon Bridge Road in Demorest.
“What we’re doing today is really a reminder campaign to watch out, not only for our SRO, but … to watch out for the school zone,” HSCO Public Information Officer Kevin Angell said. “The speed limit goes from 55 to 35 miles an hour … and the traffic volume is pretty high, and also pretty fast.”
Angell said that the HCSO officers out at Fairview Elementary had made around four or five traffic stops Friday afternoon. But this isn’t the only time the HSCO plans to be visible during school zone hours.
“Our plan in all of our school zones is to kind of step it up,” Angell said. “We’re getting towards the end of the year; we don’t want people to become complacent and we want to make sure that the students and our SROs are safe.”
He says while the first stop is usually a warning to remind people to slow down, drivers should take school zones seriously.
“They need to pay attention to the school zones and slow down,” Angell says. “They need to look for the officer that is in the middle of the roadway unprotected, they need to look out for the kids and the school buses that are going to be commonplace in this area.”
