Every school day, Alliance High School’s lunch time is a nightmare throughout the town. Students try to get home or to restaurants as soon as possible in order to have enough time to eat and get back to school. Students think they are good drivers, but in actuality, they drive recklessly in the parking lot and throughout the town.

A few weeks ago, drivers were getting pulled over left and right for speeding in the 20 mph school zone. It began the Monday before Christmas break and lasted a few days. It became common to hear: “So and so got pulled over, that’s eight now!”, before school and right after lunch.

It is now winter in Alliance, so there’s snow and ice on the ground, making the roads slick. Some young drivers like the slick surfaces and use them to drift corners and peel out. Not only is this annoying to other drivers, but it is very unsafe and sometimes hard to control where you are going.

I haven’t heard about any major accidents during this school year in comparison to last year.; However, I heard about several wrecks and people talking about sliding through intersections. This year, I have only heard of a few fender benders; However, I constantly overhear people in the hallways talking about how bad people are at driving.

One day, when snow was present, an announcement came asking for someone who drove a specific truck to come to the office. It was Mr. Clear who made the announcement and soon talk around the school said that someone was doing cookies in the parking lot during lunch and got caught. That just leads to one question…

What is it about snow that makes everyone drive poorly? One answer could be that newer drivers haven’t driven through snow yet, and are not used to having to stop earlier and drive at slower speeds than usual. Another answer could be that drivers are in a rush to get to school, so they don’t think they have time to slow down and drive safely, while risking being late. Some drivers just don’t care, they think it’s fun to drive fast and slide around and don’t think about the risk of causing an accident.

The parking lot is already very crowded, but during lunch, drivers try to beat other people out of the area by any means necessary. Some people in trucks drive over the curbs, while others go way too fast in the parking lot to get out, which can be dangerous to students while they walk to their vehicles.

No matter what the reason may be, snow on the streets needs to be taken seriously by drivers everywhere. Snow is unpredictable and dangerous. Less accidents happen during the fresh snowfall than the days when the snow melts then freezes over. Do to this, drivers, especially high school aged drivers, need to take the extra precaution to be safe rather than sorry.