By Morgan Buerke, Editor

Accidents occurring throughout the student parking lot have led administrators to change the way drivers can exit the area.

“We implemented the change in an effort to reduce car accidents,” Officer Keith Gardner said. “Hopefully these traffic changes will reduce the number of accidents at or around the school.”

This sudden change in rules was decided mostly by those in charge of  the school’s security said Dean Renee Grisch. These included Assistant Superintendant Dr. Julie- Ann Fuchs, Principal Chip Hickman and Gardner.

“They looked at the big picture,” Grisch said.

Factors that played into the decision included the reduction of accidents, pedestrians, speed, buses and even merging. Grisch said that the administration’s  main goal was to make sure the lot is safe.

“Speed is the biggest problem, and we’re trying to correct that by obviously taking away parking passes and so forth,” Gardner said.

A lot of students thought that the change was going to slow them down.

“[I thought] it wasn’t going to work,” senior Airynn Woodill said. “The students who sped before are going to speed again, and it’s the same thing  for reckless driving.”

But in the long run, Woodill said that she actually gets out faster than  she did before.

“It still takes a while to get out, but the change was effective,” Woodill said.

Another source of problems was merging; Gardner said some licensed students don’t know how to wait to let another car in, or if they do, students aren’t willing to let another car get in front of them.

“I think that most people who get their driver’s license should already know how to do that,” Woodill said.

The problem with merging has caused numerous accidents and some close calls.

Gardner said that so far, he’s  heard of about four or five accidents this year, but they were all located in different spots throughout the lot.

The area of highest risk, he said, was where the parking lot road exits at Keslinger because buses entering the lot blocked drivers’ visibility. Administrators have now changed the policy  so no one can go out using Keslinger Road; therefore avoiding the buses altogether.

Grisch said that the reason administrators had to factor in buses is that they “have higher priority” over cars.

She also said that, with accidents occurring in the parking  lot, “no injuries have occurred so far,” and only one accident resulted in “major damage to both cars involved.”

The problem was mostly with near-accidents; a large amount of cars that don’t actually hit each other came really close. The change has helped with that.

“I think they’re coming to realize it’s not slowing them down as much as they thought,” Gardner said.