Slowing down speeders.

Stone Lake Elementary School, as well as three other schools, in the Elk Grove Unified School District in California, has launched a student valet program this fall to slow down motorists around schools and in school parking lots, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Traffic safety experts say they can control gridlock outside schools, where hordes of parents and buses drop off youngsters, by educating drivers about road safety, designing schools with better traffic patterns and enforcing speed limits and parking laws. Adult crossing guards and a portable radar sign showing how fast drivers are traveling are other good safety measures for the morning and afternoon rush.

Nationwide, about 800 children traveling to and from school are killed each year in motor vehicle crashes and another 152,000 are injured, according to the National Academies' Transportation Research Board. And a 2000 survey by the National Safe Kids campaign found that almost 71 percent of motorists in the Sacramento area drove faster than the posted speed limit in school zones, compared with 65 percent of drivers nationwide.