Accidents will be prevented near high school

The people pushing for a 15 mph zone in front of Carson High School may never know the good they've done.

And that will be a wonderful thing.

Thanks to parent activists like Robin Browne and a fairly rapid response from the city and school district, traffic will be slowed along that portion of the street, even as the limit is raised to 35 mph for much of the rest of Saliman Road.

The net effect should be a safer area where high-school students congregate and better traffic flow along the rest of the busy street, which has two other school zones in front of Fremont and Seeliger elementary schools.

It will be up to drivers to obey the school-zone limit and up to the sheriff's office to do some traffic enforcement, but at least the right limits will be in place. A staggered crosswalk also should help.

While part of the impetus came from an accident in which a student was injured, this has been an area long due for attention. As traffic has increased on Saliman and the high school become more crowded, changes were needed.

More is needed, though, as was suggested this week. Traffic around the school in the mornings and afternoons is simply awful, and the only solution is another route.

A connection to Highway 50 is one way to go. Eventually, a street that intersects Fifth Street would also help.

In the meantime, there's no guarantee there won't be another accident in front of Carson High. But we believe the changes will help slow traffic, make student pedestrians more aware, and reduce the chances of someone's child being struck.

That's why we say the folks behind the effort will never know how many accidents they helped to prevent. Thanks for making them not happen.