SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Cops to monitor school opening traffic

By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
   Police will, once again, be looking for unsafe drivers as children return to school next week.
   ”Our focus is to ensure a smooth and safe return of the 9,100 students,” Chief of Police Raymond Hayducka said in a press release this week. “Officers will be stationed at each of the districts eleven schools at the start and end of the school day.”
   Police will be monitoring speeding, parking issues and pedestrian safety for the first few weeks of the school year, according to the release.
   ”Each year there is an adjustment period,” Chief Hayducka said. “There will be increased traffic and more pedestrians. Motorists will have to adjust to these changes.”
   Part of the adjustments that will need to be made will come from new traffic patterns at both Crossroads North Middle School on George’s Road and also at South Brunswick High School on Ridge Road, according to the release.
   Changes at each of the schools will try to ease problems with dropping off and picking up students, according to police.
   District and police officials have worked on the new traffic plans during the year and have said the changes should create a safer environment for students.
   At the high school, there will now be three lanes of traffic in front of the building, with the closest lane for dropping students off and the addition of a third, outer lane for “through” traffic, according to police.
   The lanes will merge together at the end of the building and exit onto Ridge Road, according to the release.
   More information about the new traffic pattern is available online at http://www.sbschools.org/schools/sbhs/index.php.
   Crossroads North will now have separate entrances for buses and cars so that students being dropped off by parents do not have to walk in the bus area, according to the release.
   The plan is also designed to ease traffic congestion from buses and cars exiting the school at the same time.
   Speed bumps have also been installed where cars will be dropping off students in the rear of the building, according to police.
   For more information on the Crossroads changes, go to http://www.sbschools.org/schools/xrds/index.php.