There’s about 20,000 parking accidents in Kansas that occur in parking lots daily and about 50,000 accidents weekly, according to the Nelson Macneil Rayfield website. 

At DHS, there’s an average of about one accident per week.

Before school, there are parents rushing to drop off their kids, while inexperienced student drivers navigating the craziness of finding a parking spot.

It doesn’t help that there are students doing burnouts or racing or reversing at high speeds.

“My mom drops me off and I get scared sometimes because of angry teenagers in their cars when they are speeding and reckless driving to make them seem cool,” freshman Lily Trabert said. “I don’t think I want to be driving in the DHS parking lot because everybody just drives recklessly.” 

Some students arrive early so they don’t have to deal with the last-minute crazy drivers. Then there’s the ones who show up early to do burnouts before school.

 “I find it interesting that people do donuts and burnouts for no reason at all, especially out in the parking lots when people are out of their cars or driving. I just think it’s dangerous,” freshman Sophia Schultz said. “Honestly, it’s interesting, but I don’t really care as long as nobody gets hurt.”

Sophomore Margarita Barbosa Solorio has seen way too many students driving recklessly.

“I ride the bus, I feel unsafe because the student drivers seem to be distracted when driving and it makes me feel unsafe because a crash can happen at any time,” she said. “I be seeing students driving with their Starbucks drink in their hand and being on their phones. I’ve also seen people honk at them for almost crashing for not having their eyes on the road.”

Robert Ash, the data leader/event manager who is present outside before and after school, wants to keep the school parking lot as safe as possible.

“I still hope incoming students that are new to driving to school will be careful and aware of their surroundings,” he said.

Students often think they’re professionals at driving. 

They aren’t.

“I wish and hope the people in the parking lots are making more of a great choice because they’re out there screwing around being dangerous,” Ash said. “I get disappointed mainly when kids are doing burnouts and donuts out in the parking lot because they can easily wreck and we had a few bad accidents that happened in the past.”