Orange County School District to work with police to enforce traffic drop-off nightmare

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A spokesperson with the Orange County School District told Eyewitness News on Friday that the school district police are working with law enforcement partners to help alleviate the traffic near Lake Nona High School.

Troopers on Thursday morning warned parents that dropping off their children at Lake Nona High School in the middle of a busy road is both dangerous and illegal, but some motorists were back at it on Friday.

"I understand it's an inconvenience, but it is not safe," said driver Amy Benson.

Some parents have complained that the issue is a safety hazard, because they said students sometimes run in traffic to get to campus.

Many parents admit to dropping off their kids on the side of the road to avoid the 10- to 15-minute wait to get onto campus. But troopers said impatience is not an excuse.

Parents told Eyewitness News that there is only one entrance to drop off students and that they don't want to wait in line.

Parents continued on Friday to drop their kids off on Narcoosee Road. Troopers were not in the area Friday enforcing the new safety crackdown or issuing citations.

“This is extremely dangerous," Trooper Steven Montiero said. "We don’t want anyone getting hit by a car. We don’t want someone driving distracted, not seeing that car stopped ahead and it’s illegal."

On Thursday, 10 parents received $164 tickets as they tried to avoid the long wait on Narcoossee Road to pull onto school property.

Some of the ticketed parents were caught without their licenses, which resulted in citations or the parent having to wait for a ride.

"At the end of the day, we're not out here to give anyone a hard time," Montiero said. "We're out here because accidents have occurred because of this."

Cox Media Group