Parent to Drivers: Please be Cautious in School Zones

My 11-year-old daughter – a fifth grade student at the Roberts— walks a couple of blocks to school every morning. I as a parent, feel I have done my part in coaching her re: traffic safety. I have also insisted that rather than use the back roads, she remain on Salem Street until she gets to Park Street, to get to Roberts. She, as a young pedestrian and as a citizen, is very well aware of her responsibility to keep herself safe, and if necessary and appropriate, to look out for others.

On April 24, 2012, at about 8:30 AM, as she was crossing Paris Street to head towards Park Street on Salem, her left leg was grazed by a car. She is fine and we are fortunate that there was no injury. Her description – and explanation– was that she was “skimmed,” most probably by the car of a parent who was anxious to get their kid to school on time. What’s amazing is that the driver of the “small, beige” car did not even notice, and sped right on!

While I truly appreciate our luck in that she is fine, and her empathy and understanding of someone else’s anxiety to get to school on time, I implore all of us to ask some questions of ourselves and reconsider our ways as individuals and as institutions.

1. It makes no matter how much of a hurry we are in… horrible accidents will cause us the delay of a lifetime and the sensation and commotion that we can live without.

2. I know I too, am guilty of making a speedy right turn from Salem onto Paris Street at 8:30 AM, which is typically when traffic picks up and oncoming traffic is never patient with those accessing Salem Street and side street drivers have no choice but to be aggressive to leave or enter Salem Street. We need to seriously respect the rules of the road.

3. I hope the school will consider informing parents that this happened to a student and they were the first ones to be notified, by an 11-year-old student who was too proud and stoic to let it be known, although she got quite a scare. It could have been anyone’s child and though it is important for all drivers and pedestrians to pay attention to these concerns, the issue is very much local and pertinent to the Roberts community.

4. I hope the city — this is something I don’t ever remember having seen in all the years I’ve lived off of Salem Street— will consider spending a couple of bucks to for striping crosswalks, onto these important intersections. I know that these are small side streets, but they happen to be in a school zone!

5. The city also needs to do a lot more in enforcing traffic regulations on that strip of Route 60. What happened yesterday is not a fluke. It is a warning. We should all take notice.

– Submitted by a Concerned Parent