I am a student at Rochester Adams High School, and I have had my driver’s license since 2016. I have never gotten into a car accident until this year, my senior year. I was on my way home from school when it all happened. I was stopped at a red light on Tienken road waiting for the light to turn green when I saw pieces of metal fly in front of my car. My body flew forward as my seat belt locked to hold me back. At that moment, I had no idea what had just happened…

This past summer, Rochester Adams High School made renovations to the parking lots because they were in desperate need of expansion. Before the new additions, the property had a bus loop, a parent loop, a small staff parking lot, an auditorium student parking lot, an athletic student parking lot, and limited student spots behind the school. In the athletic parking lot, there was only one entrance, one right-turn-only exit, and in the auditorium lot, there was only an entrance with no exit unless driving into the parent loop. Needless to say, it was somewhat dangerous driving to and from school once you got to Adams.

However, the newly renovated lots did resolve some of the issues. The auditorium parking lot was expanded into the parent loop. The parent and the bus loop were combined into one big parent loop, so the buses were moved to the middle school.

“I think the new loop is faster with dropping my kids off because it is only one loop,” said Adams parent Michael Fox.

Although nothing was changed about the athletic parking lot, one more entrance and exit was added to the auditorium parking lot. For the most part, positive adjustments were made to Rochester Adams High school.

Nevertheless, traffic is still a major issue. Cars line up on Adams road and Tienken road, which consists of kids trying to get to school and parents dropping off their kids every morning. Furthermore, the same issue occurs when school gets out.

“The traffic is awful coming up Tienken in the mornings and after school because of the new left turn lane where all the parents are waiting to turn into the new loop, and in my opinion it does nothing to help any other traffic problem the school has,” said senior Eli King.

Students are rushing to get out of school every day, and parents’ line up twenty minutes before the last bell rings, creating horrendous traffic on all the roads surrounding the High School. Other people in the community have to drive around the lines of cars (stopped in the middle of the street) while parents are in line to pick up their children, causing safety concerns.

…At the moment I was hit from behind, I quickly looked at my brother who was in the passenger seat of the car when I saw smoke out of the corner of my eye. My heart dropped. I slowly turned, and I saw smoke coming from the back of my car. Tears ran down my face when a middle-aged man came to my car and asked if we were alright, and that he was so sorry. I still have not processed what had happened. I finally got out of my car and realized the middle-aged man hit my car so hard that I hit the car in front of me, and that car hit another car. It was a four-car accident.

The reason the man hit me was that he was trying to get around the traffic that the parents were creating by backing up in a line on the road. My accident was not the first accident this school year involving a student from the school. Luckily, everyone involved with the accident was alright, but in the end, the accident could have been avoided if the traffic from school was not an issue from the parents being stopped in the middle of the road.