ITD has lowered speed limits on Highway 16 and 52 in a zone that has built up concerns about student safety. Emmet students will be back in class this week, and on their way to school, they'll notice some safety improvements on Highway 16 and 52. I checked in with school leaders as new signage is now in place to keep pedestrians safe.Coming out of Freezeout Hill, drivers are now adjusting their speeds down to 40 miles per hour; an adjustment that Payette River Regional Technical Academy Superintendent Patrick Goff has been fighting for over the last few years."I've just been beating my head against a wall trying to get people to listen and understand that when you have 14, 15, or 16-year-old kids that are driving and pulling out on a road that is 60-65 miles an hour, we need to get slowed down and a school zone area," shrugged Superintendent Goff. The Idaho Transportation Department did not designate the area as a school zone. However, they did lower the speed limit on Highway 16 and 52 to 40 mph, expanding the lower speed limit from Cherry Lane, past Mill Road.Superintendent Goff explained that this speed limit and new signage will allow for safer exits for buses.The superintendent pointed explaining, "They can't turn left because of the speed. They have to turn right and go all the way past Substation, go up to Cherry, take a right on Cherry, take a right on Substation, hit the same stop light right here, then turn left and go back to the high school." Superintendent Goff also explained that ITD is talking about possibly expanding the middle lane in front of the school to allow more buses to turn out and merge onto Highway 16, instead of having to take the long way around."I think right now, it's just for the safety of the kids. Period. I've been doing this for 29 years now, and we have had to bury some kids. So the best way we need to think about this is to make sure we have the utmost safety involved, especially for the students who are going to be driving back and forth to our facility," finished Superintendent Goff.This new signage is just the first step in improving student safety around these schools. ITD says in the near future they plan to build a full stop light and crosswalk at the intersection of Mill Road and Highway 52.