Parents use yard signs to send message to speeding drivers

Parents are sending a message to drivers who speed down neighborhood streets.

Several signs that read “Drive like your kid lives here” have showed up in different local neighborhoods to promote kid safety. Parent Michele Laramore said, “This is a neighborhood where you can come out and play, you just have to be concerned with the speeders."

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for children under 14 years old, and local parents worry their kids will become victims.

They are using these signs to remind speeding drivers to slow down. J.D. Chastain, a local resident who has 8 grandchildren, put 2 of the signs in his yard.

Chastain said, "People shouldn't be speeding along here, they don't save any time by going fast, so they can slow down and make it safer for the kids."

The speed limit in residential neighborhoods is 30 miles per hour, but that doesn’t stop some drivers.

“There’s a jeep that that flies down here all the time,” Chastain said. “And there’s three little girls that live down the street and they don’t deserve to be hurt by somebody not paying attention,” he added. Chastain hopes the signs will make people think about their own families.

Laramore testified that the signs in her neighborhood have changed her driving habits. "Well you're not concerned for other people's safety so much as your own family, makes you think ‘what if someone was speeding through my neighborhood?’"

She said as a parent, her kid’s safety is just as important as the other kids in the neighborhood. "When I see those signs I see myself going down to 20 or even 15, so I think it was a good idea to put up the signs and I hope it’s effective with other drivers as well," she said.

Another local parent explained why she has one of the signs in her yard. "I have two precious grandsons that like to play in my yard when they come to visit. I got it for them plus the other children that play in their yards as well," Judith Morris of Woodway said.

The signs are sold at Home Depot and online at drivelikeyourkidslivehere.com.