On Oct. 7th at 3:47 pm, there was a head-on collision at 17th and Arapahoe. A white car turning right down 17th collided with a blue car that was stopped at a red light. The white car was most likely going no more than 15mph; however, it was enough to leave a large dent in the blue car’s left headlight. In response, the EMT and police arrived approximately 15 minutes later. There were no serious injuries and the people involved drove away just fine with a nice dent and raised insurance. 

This prompts the question: why do these situations keep occurring this year?    

Since the start of school, there have been four separate incidents related to students injured by cars. Students being hit while walking and biking, cars colliding in the school area, and late busses seem to be the norm nowadays. Now that school starts at 8:30 am and ends at 3:45 pm, there is more traffic from people getting to work. The already hectic traffic of people commuting to work has now increased dramatically by having school start at the same time. Last year there was only one major incident that resulted in a college student’s death in an intersection while biking unrelated to Boulder High. There were no reports of Boulder High students getting harmed in accidents. There is a very clear correlation with the number of wrecks and student injuries because of the schedule change. Is this schedule change really better? Or is it worth putting people’s lives at risk for an extra hour of sleep…