A Las Vegas parent has launched a petition demanding that city and county leaders install speed cushions and raised crosswalks near schools. Clark County School District records show 432 students were involved in traffic crashes during the 2025–2026 school year. Amy Jean Nobles started the effort, known as the Slow Down Vegas movement, to pressure local officials into funding a pilot program at 10 campuses where students have been harmed most often.
According to KTNV Las Vegas, Nobles is asking leaders to consider the cushions because they could be installed quickly and relocated if needed. The pilot program she has proposed would begin within 90 days, track results at each campus, and determine whether the measures should expand to additional schools if they reduce harm. Nobles said the devices would give cars a jolt when drivers hit them, physically slowing traffic in a way that painted signs and posted limits have not.
A Crisis Playing Out Across the Valley
The petition lands amid a broader school-zone safety emergency across Southern Nevada. During the 2025–2026 school year, 427 school-zone crashes were reported, according to figures reported by Nevada Globe. In July, Clark County officials were reviewing a traffic safety overhaul, and the county traffic safety director presented 75 proposals, according to Nevada Globe. A report from a School Traffic Safety Working Group recommended physical infrastructure changes to protect students.
Why Cushions, Not Humps
Speed cushions have wide cutouts that allow large emergency vehicles to pass. The design distinction matters for Nobles' proposal, which calls for speed cushions as a traffic-calming tool.
There is local precedent for the approach. The Las Vegas City Council approved a $52,000 traffic safety package in June that installed seven speed cushions near Shadow Ridge High School along with speed limit reductions on nearby corridors, the Review-Journal reported, after the school was selected following sustained resident complaints about speeding drivers.
The Bureaucratic Clock Parents Are Racing
Nobles is asking leaders to respond by Oct. 23 and has proposed a 90-day pilot, setting an ambitious timeline for her effort.
The City of Las Vegas's 2026–2028 Vision Zero Action Plan Update was updated in February and sets a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2050, according to Zero Fatalities Nevada. City data cited in the plan recorded 251 deaths and 750 serious injuries between 2018 and 2022.
What the Law Already Requires
Nevada law sets a 15 mph speed limit in school zones and provides penalties for school-zone violations, according to the UNLV Transportation Research Center.
Separately, Assembly Bill 527 authorizes school districts to use automated cameras on school buses to fine drivers who illegally pass stopped buses with flashing red lights. The law took effect in 2025.
Statewide, Nevada has recorded 261 roadway fatalities through September, a 9.38% decrease compared with the same period in 2025, even as 30 traffic deaths were logged in September alone, according to the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety. That statewide decline stands in contrast to the persistent pedestrian risk clustered around Las Vegas Valley school zones, where Nobles says the stakes remain urgent. She has said the proposal could save a child's life, and her online petition is aimed at building enough public support to push city and county leaders to fund the 10-school pilot before the Oct. 23 response deadline she has set.
