Keeping children safe should be goal

On Nov. 3, in a crowded church parking lot used by parents to drop off and pick up their kids attending an adjacent elementary school, I saw a large privately owned trash truck maneuver around trying to empty dumpsters in the middle of a crowd of kids leaving school, with many close-by cars coming and going.

The driver was certainly able, but it was a horrible hazard to create for those kids. Other times, leaf- sucking trucks will crawl along a narrow busy street needed for school traffic right at the time school is starting or letting out. Often, city trash and recycle haulers will race around residential areas driving much too fast.

Anyone driving a large trash or recycle truck should be routed to stay well away from schools, especially elementary schools, at least within 15 minutes of the start or end of the school day. That church lot would have been nearly empty 10 minutes later. Drivers should also be required to drive slowly in residential areas. Twenty miles per hour ought to be an upper limit; a lot slower would be prudent most of the time.

John W. Arbore

Cedar Rapids