School zones are meant to slow drivers down and protect kids, but parents and students in the Pittsburgh area say they do not feel safe. 

When it comes to student safety, the discussion is often about inside the school building and preventing violence in classrooms. However, for most students, the most dangerous part of their day is going to and from school. Every year, about 100 children are hit and killed by drivers of vehicles while walking to and from school. For comparison, 59 students were killed in shootings on school grounds in 2024. 

How safe are the roads around schools? 

What KDKA Investigates found at almost every school was not surprising: drivers behaving badly. But what was surprising was how that bad behavior differed from school to school.

From blowing past a stop sign at Pittsburgh Arlington Pre K-8 to zipping through busy crosswalks outside schools in Beaver Falls, there were plenty of lawbreakers but not much law enforcement. 

KDKA Investigates also found plenty of infrastructure measures designed to cut down on bad driving. Over the summer, crews in Pittsburgh installed traffic calming measures near three elementary schools, including curb extensions and ADA ramps near Pittsburgh Arlington, speed humps outside Propel Hazelwood K-8 and a pedestrian refuge near Pittsburgh Faison K-5.

Those infrastructure measures deterred bad driving behaviors, but the bad driving was often dictated by the infrastructure. For example, Rectenwald Street outside Pittsburgh Arlington is narrow, with school buses and other vehicles squeezing past parked cars. And the new curb cut-outs make it even narrower. 

The design means it'd be nearly impossible to get up any speed on this street, but it's not impossible to run the stop sign at the top of the block. KDKA Investigates watched more than 60 drivers come to that corner one morning during drop off, and half of them rolled through the stop sign. Some drivers rolled through even as young children were in the crosswalk. 

Similar stories of unsafe driving

Outside Propel Hazelwood during an afternoon dismissal, a similarly narrow street and speed humps on Glenwood Avenue prevented speeding, but a crossing guard said that did not make people stop at the intersection. He said he recently had to take time off work because he was hit by the driver of a vehicle. 

When the bell rang in Beaver Falls, where elementary, middle and high schools all occupy the main drag, KDKA Investigates found a diligent crossing guard at one intersection with four-way stops and drivers who mostly obeyed the school zone speed limit displayed with flashing lights. 

But even as kids stepped into the crosswalks, drivers slowly cruised past them, not exactly following the state law that requires them to yield to pedestrians. 

"You just have to try to find a pause in cars, because they very rarely slow down or stop," Beaver Falls student Khadija Shahbazz said.  

Drivers getting worse, former crossing guard says

Donna McManus has been the school crossing guard assistant supervisor for the Department of Public Safety in Pittsburgh for the past four years. Before that, she spent six years as a crossing guard.

She said drivers are getting worse. 

"Blowing through the school zones faster than 15 miles per hour, not stopping for bus lights when children are loading and unloading, distracted drivers on their phones or with whatever, speed, speed, running red lights, running stop signs," McManus said. "You name it, it happens." 

KDKA Investigates met her down the block from Pittsburgh Faison, where two speed humps in the school zone are meant to slow drivers down to 15 mph. However, some drivers were clocked going as fast as 39 mph.

"I'm hoping, in the long run, once people get used to driving through some of these traffic and calming measures, that it will help," McManus said.

The main road to Conouenesing Elementary School in Butler is State Route 68, where a speed limit of 55 mph drops to 15 mph twice a day. KDKA Investigates expected to find lots of speeders there, and while some were spotted, all it took to make most drivers slow down was one person going the speed limit. 

It was a similar scene outside Bon Meade Elementary School in Moon Township during drop-off one morning. Drivers who hit the brakes to meet the school zone speed limit forced others behind them to slow down, too.

It seems obvious, but it's just as much part of the safe street infrastructure as speed humps and curb cut-outs.

Police officer explains enforcement 

Corporal Mike Beachy oversees the school resource officer program for the Moon Area School District. His duties include traffic enforcement in school zones. 

"I can tell you here at Moon, we have extra patrols that we set up on a daily basis," Beachy said. "If you exceed those 15-mile-an-hour speed limits, you will be stopped. You could receive a citation. Those citations are also three points and carry with them heavy penalties."

But he admitted that the penalties are so steep for certain infractions that officers may let people off with just a warning.

"It's not something that we take any pride in, in taking somebody's ability to drive away from them," Beachy said. "Do officers apply more discretion? Maybe. And give warnings? That could very well be the case. Having said that, the law is written to keep our kids safe."

Parents in Pittsburgh call for more enforcement 

In Pittsburgh, parents said they are not seeing similar enforcement from city police. 

KDKA Investigates raised the issue with Eliza Durham, a public safety information officer with Pittsburgh Public Safety.

"It is a concern that we take very seriously," Durham said.

She said while the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police does not do enforcement blitzes, the bureau does assign motorcycle officers to school zones every day and works with schools on an ongoing basis to find traffic safety solutions. 

"I know our Pittsburgh Bureau of Police work with our crossing guards and the Department of Public Safety on Vision Zero to identify intersections that could be improved with traffic calming projects or other deterrents," Durham said.

McManus said the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure and her crossing guards do their best to offer solutions, too.  

"We see how the school is laid out, what can possibly be done to make it smoother and safer," she said. "We give the school those recommendations. Sometimes they implement them. Sometimes they implement some of them. Sometimes they say, 'Well, sorry, we can't do that.'"

Distracted driving concerns 

One thing crossing guards and police officers mentioned over and over again was distracted driving.

Paul Miller's Law, which bans using handheld devices while driving, went into effect in June. Right now, if a driver is caught with their phone in their hand, police will issue a written warning. But starting June 2026, drivers will face a $50 fine, plus court costs and fees.

The law comes after Paul Miller was killed when a tractor-trailer driver reaching for their phone caused a crash in Monroe County in 2010.