Traffic safety in school zones never disappears as an issue discussed for improvement because some drivers always will take chances, disobey posted restrictions, and endanger the lives of children and possibly themselves.

Problems increase when traffic pattern signage and instructions for drop-off and pick-up change - not to mention changing schools and getting used to new routines.

Tupelo provides bus service, but thousands of students also are taken to school and picked up by parents and other caregivers, and substantial numbers who live near schools in their neighborhoods walk or bicycle to and from school.

The necessity for caution, patience and restraint never subsides.

Tupelo drivers, like others elsewhere, are people in a hurry. Hurry is dangerous when it violates sensible restrictions, especially involving and for the sake of children.

It is arguably irritating and patience-trying to slow to a few miles per hour - single digits or even a stop - when school traffic is at its peak and when school is in session. There is no alternative. Any driving behavior in violation of posted restrictions places the welfare of children and others involved in every school's situation at higher risk.

This week's special request from the Tupelo Public School District for motorists' restraint is reasonable and necessary.

An organization called Saferroutes has studied traffic safety issues and schools - elementary through high school - and offers instructive information:

* Traffic-related danger is the second most common reason cited by parents nationwide for not allowing their children to walk to and from school. In 2004, the latest year of the survey, 493 pedestrians and bicyclists ages 14 and under were killed, and approximately 29,000 children were injured while walking or bicycling in the United States. The perceived danger interestingly spurs more traffic from parents taking children to school, but in fact motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for school-age children.

* Unsafe traffic conditions often are coupled with a lack of safe places to walk, including an absence of sidewalks.

* Twenty percent to 25 percent of morning rush hour traffic is attributable to parents driving their children to school. As the percentage of children walking and bicycling to school continues to decrease, motor vehicle traffic increases.

Many injuries and fatalities can be avoided if streets are made safer, and if drivers pay more attention to pedestrian safety and safe-driving behaviors. School congestion in Tupelo only happens for a little while twice daily during the school year. A little forethought can help many drivers avoid schools during rush hours.