With students returning to class in early August, Clark County officials are searching for ways to avoid a repeat of the past school year, when traffic accidents involving kids near campus soared more than 250 percent. A report compiled by the School Traffic Safety Working Group offered dozens of reforms last week, some more promising than others.
Figures from the Clark County School District reveal there were 427 collisions involving children near school campuses during the 2025-26 academic calendar year. That’s up from 120 in the previous year. Most of the incidents were minor, but two students were killed in October 2025 — one was struck while riding a bicycle and another died after being hit by a school bus.
Some of the increase can be attributed to more aggressive reporting. But the increased popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters also has contributed to the problem, particularly when nearly half of the accidents last school year involved students riding these devices. Statistics also show that students were at fault in many of the accidents.
“We have kids, very young kids, that are on motorcycles, and their parents might think they’re on an e-bike,” said Andrew Bennett, director of the Clark County Office of Traffic Safety. “It would be helpful having clearer definitions of what these devices are.”
The working group’s suggestion list runs 75 items long and ranges from common sense to aspirational. Among the former are educations campaigns involving pedestrian and bicycle safety and efforts to replace missing signage or to repaint faded street markings. Giving principals more authority to deal with issues unique to their own campuses is also a good idea.
Ultimately, however, increased enforcement is the most promising approach. Even if the statutes regarding age requirements and e-scooters are lacking or vague, drivers of these devices must still obey basic traffic laws while they’re on the road. The fact that many accidents were the fault of students riding such vehicles indicates that too many kids are flouting traffic safety requirements.
The report does indeed recommend a greater law enforcement presence during start and dismissal times. The new head of the school district police has said that he supports efforts to beef up enforcement and to better coordinate with other agencies toward that end. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Spencer Levering reports that the district is developing a plan to more aggressively police violations in school zones under existing budgetary restraints.
Tinkering around the edges may have minor benefits. But ensuring that those who engage in dangerous behavior — whether students on e-scooters or adults racing through school zones — face consequences for their indifference offers the best hope of tackling the problem.
