Street: We need to do more about school traffic safety

[John Boyle]

Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2004 Street: We need to do more about school traffic safety By MYUNG OAK KIM [EMAIL PROTECTED] After a Daily News series detailing the rising number of children being hit by cars around schools, Mayor Street has publicly conceded that not enough is being done to protect children from school-zone traffic dangers. "For many years we've talked about doing a variety of different things and we've done some things, but we probably need to continue to work on the problem and do more," Street said in a press conference late last week. "Everyone in this administration, at the school district and every other place is concerned when you have children that are being hit by cars." Street called efforts to address this problem a "number one" priority. "There's nothing more important than the safety of children," he said. The Daily News published a four-part series last week about the mayhem on streets around city schools that has caused a sharp increase in the number of children being struck by cars, most right outside school buildings. So far this school year, at least 51 public school children have been hit by cars between home and school, according to school district reports. Last school year, 72 children were injured, and 52 were struck the previous school year. Four students have been killed from such crashes since September 1999. Other cities that have aggressively attacked traffic dangers have virtually eliminated student injuries. The latest accident, on Wednesday, injured a 13-year-old boy who attends Pickett Middle School at Wayne and Chelten avenues in Germantown. At 9:45 that morning, the 7th-grader got out of his mother's car in front of school and was crossing Wayne when he was struck by a 1992 Mazda, according to a school district report. He was treated at a hospital for undisclosed injuries. Three other Pickett students were hit by cars at the same intersection - on Nov. 25, 2003, Nov. 25, 2002, and Jan. 29, 2002, according to school district records. The Daily News plans to publish the latest crashes on a weekly basis. Street defended his administration's efforts to protect children. "This is an administration that's spent an awful lot of time working to improve the quality of life and opportunity for children," he said. "A lot of the work that we have done on behalf of children is fairly well known." Managing Director Phil Goldsmith created a task force in November in response to questions from this reporter. The group consists of representatives from the school district, the Streets Department, police and other city agencies. The Streets Department is studying signage at school intersections. The task force is also looking into education campaigns about traffic safety. Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said he is "very concerned" about the problem, and pledged to do everything he could "to make sure our kids are safe." But Johnson offered no details on any specific crackdown on speeders, illegal parkers or reckless drivers around schools. Goldsmith said police are hampered by not having many cars equipped with speed-enforcement equipment. But he wants to see better enforcement of reckless driving around schools and "more of a presence when schools are opening and when schools are closing." Goldsmith said the task force, which meets again Feb. 19, will, among other things, look into changing the agency that oversees the crossing guards, now handled by the Police Department. Last week, the Daily News published a story describing a crossing guard program in shambles. Guards are virtually unsupervised and poorly trained. A 5-year-old boy was killed in May 2001 at an intersection where the crossing guard was absent. And at least two recent crashes happened at intersections where the crossing guard was not on duty. In a related development, Gov. Rendell last week announced during his budget address an initiative in PennDOT that would spend about $25 million a year for four years on Safe Routes to School programs statewide. Such programs, under way in several other states, help schools design walking routes that are safest for children who walk to and from school. The state runs a small Safe Routes to School program in Indiana, 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.