State Representative Bob Owen has introduced the “Safe Path to School Bill” to address child carpool and bus line safety.
Owen’s legislation would require certain safety protocols when students are picked up or dropped off from elementary school and follows significant coordination between Owen and the friends and family of Emma Bell Savoie, who was fatally hit by a vehicle in a Slidell school parking lot in 2022.
Owen’s legislation will mandate five basic school safety protocols – requiring students to remain behind a barrier before entering a pick up/drop off area, prohibiting students from entering the pick-up/drop off area until the vehicle is in park, requiring school employees working in the pick-up area to wear traffic vests, requiring students under the age of 10 be accompanied by a school employee in the pick-up/drop off area, and providing all children safe passage to all parts of school, in and around campus.
For more information on the effort to honor Emma Bell Savoie and ensure a safe path to schools, please visit www.SafePathToSchoolTaskForce.org.
