15 August 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Several students returned back to school this past week around Northeast Kansas. One group preparing to join them for the 2023 – 2024 school year, college students, have a lot to learn before they step foot on campus in the coming weeks.
Depending on where out-of-town students come from, the capital city can be quite intimidating from a diver’s perspective.
“Topeka is a fairly large town, so there’s a lot of traffic around,” Washburn University Police Department Captain James Anguiano said. “Accidents do go up around the first couple weeks of school with high school students and college students first making their ways around, so be cognizant of the traffic laws, slow down a little bit.”
When moving between cities or states to see family over the weekend, making sure your vehicle is ready for the drive ahead is imperative.
“You want to make sure that your car is in proper working order, and just be mentally alert about the surroundings as you’re making that trip,” Topeka AAA spokesperson Scott Martin said. “This being the fall there’s deer and stuff that are going to eventually be on the move, you never know when one of those are going to pop out of a ditch.”
For Washburn students, when making your way back to Topeka there are of course some rules to keep in mind when parking for classes, football games, and everything in between.
“Stay out of the restricted areas and fire lanes, keep those open, also accessible stalls do not park there,” Anguiano said. “Other than that there’s parking all over our campus.”
One common sentiment both AAA and the Police Captain had, was employing common sense. Making sure you lock up your car, keep valuables with you, and obey traffic and parking signs all help ensure a safe semester ahead.