Whether you are driving or not, if you go to Fossil Ridge High School you know that the student parking lots can be less than safe. The reasons the parking lots are unsafe is that the drivers are overconfident in their driving abilities and most think that they can look at their phone while driving without getting into an accident.
I have my own personal experience with having an accident in the school parking lot. It happened earlier this year in the beginning of Nov. after school on a Wednesday I was coming out of the parking lot and someone was on their phone and rear ended me because they did not press the brakes in time. I had no serious damage to my car other than what was originally thought to be a scratch but turned out to their license plate paint that just rubbed off. But that was not the same for the other student who hit me; their car had an imprint of my license plate on their hood and a few scratches.
The SRO (student resource officer) of Fossil, Tammy Holpuch, said that there are daily accidents in the parking lot. Most are people getting door dings and different things like that. But most accidents are never reported because most of the time people do not even notice their car has been dinged or do not think that there is anything that can be done.
“We get reports [of accidents] every two weeks,” said Holpuch. The majority of accidents that are reported are people hitting someone else while pulling in or out of parking spots and they are not paying attention.
One major accident that has happened in the past year was when someone got hit by a car in one of the student parking lots. Holpuch said “The person was stuck between the car and a light pole” and it took a while for them to remove the person.
Holpuch said the main reason for accidents is that, “most of the accidents that happen [in the parking lots] are because the student are inexperienced drivers and overconfident.”
As a school we need to limit the amount of accidents. Be aware that just because you may have a license does not mean that you are the best driver out there. Do not become overconfident because even adults who have had been driving for years still do not consider themselves as some of the best. We are all humans and no one is exempt of accidents.
Shannon Maddocks • Jan 29, 2015 at 9:49 am
I feel like you repeat a few words a lot. For example, overconfident. And it was spelled differently twice. It was “overconfident” and “over confident”. It was a great story overall, really good job!
Grace Philop • Jan 27, 2015 at 1:56 pm
I liked your article, but I did notice a couple of spelling and grammatical errors that made it a little hard to get into. However, I really like your idea behind this article and I think that providing support from the SRO made your article even better. I also liked how you included your personal experience with the parking lot in this article as well. Nice job!
Jesse • Jan 27, 2015 at 1:47 pm
I can empathize with this article. It would be cool if students opinions about Fossil drivers were addressed in here. It’d be funny to see what hey would say. I like how you included quotes from the SRO.
Lauren Scott • Jan 27, 2015 at 9:51 am
I think this article is fun to read, but also super informative of what students should be aware of in the parking lot. It is relevant and informative for those that are driving and those that will soon be driving.
Colby Ripsam • Jan 27, 2015 at 9:42 am
This article is very easy to relate to which indicates a fantastic topic. This would be a great topic to do a video or a longer feature on. I think your opinion is very accurate and most students would agree with it.