Orange County Florida -- Task Force Urges Protection of Children and Teachers at Day Care Centers and Preschools Throughout the County.

This is going to be an important week for Storefront Safety in Florida.

In response to the KinderCare tragedy last April, Orlando and Orange County officials appointed a task force to make recommendations to prevent future tragedies from occurring.  This Tuesday 10 February, the Task Force is going to make their recommendation.

Chief Otto Drozd of the Orange County Fire Department has worked hard to understand the scope of the problem, best practices for prevention of the problem, and practical standards and ordinances that might be applied to make children and teachers safer.   He has sent us reports on building strikes, loss of control accidents, and other data which is invaluable to us.  We in turn sent him national and statewide data on vehicle-into-building crashes, along with samples of local ordinances to review, ASTM test standards that apply to barriers and bollards, as well as dozens of photos pertaining to vulnerabilities and protection of child care facilities.

We will continue to cooperate on this project, and we will be flowing developments very closely.  A four year-old little girl was killed and more than a dozen children and teachers were injured -- We all want to make sure that accidents like this one will never be repeated.