Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - September 28, 2017
Book-Signing Fundraiser Benefits
Jane Addams School
Author Leslie Hauser, a South Bay resident, recently held a book-signing and fundraiser at Barnes & Noble in Torrance. Chasing Eveline is her first novel and is written for teens. Proceeds from the event
benefited Jane Addams Middle School in Lawndale where Leslie is also a teacher. Photo Provided by Charlene Nishimura
Drivers Flunk at Safety Around Area Schools
By Rob McCarthy
South Bay schools rank dangerously low
in traffic safety because of distracted driving
and parents’ refusal to use designated dropoff
zones, according to a data-analytics firm
recently featured on the CBS Evening News.
San Francisco-based Zendrive gave the
majority of South Bay campuses a “D” in
its “School Safety Snapshot,” which the
company released as students and teachers
headed back to school in August. Zendrive
compiled data taken from phone apps of
drivers using roads near public and private
schools in South Bay and Los Angeles
County, and gave each campus a letter grade
ranging from “A” to “F.” Cell phone use by
drivers, hard stops and quick acceleration in
the vicinity of a campus resulted in a lower
grade on the Zendrive scale.
“The roads around your kid’s school aren’t
as safe as you think,” the Zendrive project
team said after studying driver performance
data around 1,768 schools in Los Angeles
County.
Three schools in Inglewood received
a “C minus”--the highest grade given to
any South Bay campus. ICEF Inglewood
Middle and Elementary Charter academies
topped the list of local schools, along with
Inglewood Christian School. St. Bernard in
Westchester also got a “C minus” and each
school benefited from nearby drivers not
using cell phones while behind the wheel,
according to Zendrive.
Zendrive says it embarked on the project to
protect children while making drivers aware
of the consequences of not paying attention
to the road. “As kids are increasingly getting
to school on foot, bike, and bus, it’s on us
to take responsibility for their safety when
driving near schools,” it said.
The dangers of striking a pedestrian or
being involved in a crash are higher in the
2-to-5 p.m. drive time, Zendrive reported.
Being on the road between 4 and 5 p.m.
carries the highest risk. Another pair of
sobering statistics: crashes are the leading
causing of death for U.S. teens and schools
in urban areas are most dangerous.
Cell phone use while driving increases the
chance of a crash by 20 times, according
to the survey. While driver behavior was
responsible for the low marks throughout
the South Bay, populated metro areas were
routinely downgraded in the survey results
because of higher traffic. The Zendrive
project team awarded one California school
in rural Siskiyou County its top-safety rating.
Bessie Carmichael Schools in San Francisco
was named among the most dangerous in
America because of distraction and disregard
for school zone safety.
Not every school was included on Zendrive’s
report due to insufficient data, though the
company promises to update the school safety
snapshot as more data becomes available.
The South Bay schools and districts that
made the grade on Zendrive’s back-to-school
snapshot were:
El Segundo: D- for El Segundo High
School, Arena High School, El Segundo
Middle School and El Segundo Unified
School District offices. The bright spot: low
cell phone use around them.
Hawthorne: D for Lawndale High School,
with high cell phone use. D for Leuzinger
High School with moderate cell phone use.
D- for Centinela Valley High School with
moderate cell phone activity.
Inglewood: D- at Inglewood High School,
low cel -phone activity; D+ for Animo
Inglewood Charter High School, moderate
cell phones; C- with low cell phone activity
at ICEF Inglewood Middle and Elementary
Charters, and Inglewood Christian School.
D at Inglewood Continuation High School
with low cell phones. D for Hillcrest High
School, also minimal cell phone usage.
Manhattan Beach: D- for Mira Costa High
School, very high cell phone usage.
Torrance: D- for Torrance High School,
with some cell phone distraction. D- for
Torrance Elementary School and Torrance
Montessori School, both with moderate cell
phone activity near the campuses.
Wiseburn: D-, with moderate cell phone
use nearby.
Drivers continue to ignore California’s
hands-free cell phone law, and far too
many drivers are multitasking with their
smartphones while in traffic, the Zendrive
project team said. The distraction of
looking away from the road to tap a phone
screen becomes especially dangerous in
congested school drop-off zones, they say.
“Our recent study revealed 88 percent of
drivers use their phones while driving--
definitely a contributor to the one in three
drivers showing unsafe pickup or drop-off
behavior in school zones,” according to the
report.
Zendrive works with companies and
transportation companies to improve safety
of its drivers and lower accident rates and
insurance costs. The Bay Area company
measures driver safety using phone apps
and has tracked 30 billion miles of driving.
Zendrive used anonymous driver data from
customers and shared by partners, including
GasBuddy, Life360, and HopSkipDrive, to
profile schools and districts nationwide.
Los Angeles County was 53rd in the state
ranking for driver safety around campuses
among 55 counties counted by Zendrive.
California and Florida received an F among
the 50 states, while Nevada and Arizona
made the bottom rankings with a D and
D- respectively. Oregon drivers were judged
best in the West, earning a B. •
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Film.........................................3
Food.......................................5
Finance..................................7
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Legals............................... 6-7
Looking Up...........................2
Pets........................................8
Seniors..................................2
Sports....................................4
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
AM Clouds/
PM Sun
75˚/63˚
Saturday
Sunny
79˚/63˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
75˚/63˚