Safe driving in a school zone: September is the heaviest month for school zone violations. Over the last five years, 30,862 Pennsylvania drivers were cited with school zone violations for either speeding in school zones or illegally passing a school bus.

According to information from PA courts infoshare, September is when 14% of the year’s traffic zone citations are recorded.

An infographic shared by PA courts infoshare states the breakdown of those cited is as follows:

51% are male, 46% are female

The age group with the highest rate of citation are those age 20-29, with 25% of the citations recorded attributed to that group.

The remaining 75% of citations are attributed as: 21% to age 30-39, 17% age 40-49, 15% age 50-59, 9% age 60-69, 7% age 16-19 and 5% are attributed to those over 70. For 1% of the school zone citations, an age is not known for the individual cited.

For local counties, the data shared shows that McKean County has the highest rate of citations issued for illegally passing a school bus, while drivers in Elk County tend to be cited for speeding in a school zone most often.

Between 2014 and 2018, McKean County saw 16 citations issued for illegally passing a school bus. The tickets were evenly spaced over the years, with three issued in 2014 and 2015, four in 2016, two in 2017 and four in 2018. Meanwhile, Elk County was second with eight over the five-year period, Potter County had seven citations issued over the same five years and Cameron County had two citations issued total, both in 2017.

Citations for speeding in a school zone were issued to 29 drivers in Elk County over the same five-year period (six in both 2014 and 2015, five in 2016 and six again in both 2017 and 2018).

McKean County came in second with three total citations for speeding in a school zone, one in 2014 and two in 2018, while Potter County only had one citation in 2016 and Cameron County had one citation in 2018.