Well....It Happened. A child was hit by a car in the crosswalk in front

[ScreamingMeemie]

of our house. For six years we've been saying this is what it would take for the city to do something.

Believe it or not, I live on what most people would expect to be a quiet, low traffic street. If MrG and I had looked at our house during the daylight hours on a bright sunny day...we would have never bought it. Since we have lived here, a Neon has hit the tree in front of our house and flipped over (again, this is a regular suburb of 50's style brick ranch homes), there have been 5 fender benders to where MrG has brought out a broom and garbage can for the kids to use to clean up..(they love MrG in our neighborhood) and a car lost control at the turn and wound up in our neighbor's yard (she lives on the corner).

The other day, just after my son and daughter got home from a bike ride (:scared:), the middle schoolers were using the crosswalk to come home from school. A high school girl came roaring down the street and hit the corner at about 15 miles over the limit...saw the kid...too late...and hit him. There's a stop sign mind you. Thankfully, he is still alive...and her license is a memory.

Now I am only hoping they will take us seriously and place a berm there, separating the street into East and West...or at the very least, install some speed bumps. I'm just sick about this.

[demnan]

1. That's horrible!

young drivers just don't think. I wonder if the child will be alright or be crippled for life.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. So far he is doing well. Fractured Legs, busted ribs and a concussion.

It could have been so much worse. I never want to hear a sound like that again. And my six year old was standing in the driveway and saw it. A powerful message, but one I wish he hadn't seen. :(

[shesemsmom]

2. I hope the child will be ok

like you don't have enough to do already.... are you going to be after the *powers that be* to get that staightened out. Have you already approched them to fix the road?

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. We've been trying for about 4 years...ever since the Neon incident.

I really think this time they will do something. At least that's what they're saying. :hi:

[shesemsmom]

13. You know what they do

they tell you what they want you to hear, to shut you up. Stay after them...... Good Luck!!!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. How awful!

People speed through our neighborhood too, sometimes completely ignoring the stop signs. I'm thinking they should either install traffic calmers (speed bumps that don't tear up your car when you do the speed limit) or seriously start ticketing offenders and collect revenue for the town.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. I've told the local police that they can sit in our driveway and that

I'd even make them snacks if they would just take a week to patrol. They claim insufficient manpower. Sigh.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Insufficient manpower

Here too...Mr GoG might not have been robbed in front of our house if the cops hadn't had to deal with the drug zone on the other side of town.

But if they hired one more to hand out tickets, the revenue would pay his/her annual salary and then some.

[arwalden]

4. Terrible News!!

Don't get your hopes up about speed bumps or "traffic calming humps". People slow down ONLY just a few yards before reaching them... then RUSH LIKE MAD to get to the next one and make up for lost time. So on average, their speed slows, but for certain SEGMENTS their speed is worse.

On my street, it's not NEARLY as bad as yours... but still it's a straight-away downhill run and folks LOVE to speed. So being a "good-neighbor" I often put up a BIG PLYWOOD handpainted (spraypaint) sign that says "SPEED TRAP AHEAD!" -- Drivers see it IMMEDIATELY slow down. I presume that they just assume that I'm anti-speed traps or that I've been caught and I'm getting revenge by denying the police MORE ticket revenue.

Sorry to hear the news about the kid being hurt.

-- Allen

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. I never thought about doing something like that.

I wonder if I could get away with it? Funny thing is, the cops will take down a garage sale sign because it's against city codes and yet not have the time to patrol the street for speeders.

I think he will be okay. He's very lucky. She was going pretty darned fast. Lessons learned all around I hope. :hi:

[arwalden]

25. Actually...

... just to be on the safe side, I telephoned someone at the police department to explain what I was doing. The man I spoke with was in the traffic enforcement department (whatever they call it) and he thought it was a great idea and gave me his blessings.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Great idea!

Maybe the police should set those up...like "dummy" soldiers.

[BlondieK143]

5. That's horrible!

I'm just glad the child is still alive. Have you talked to anyone else in the neighborhood about what you all can do? It's really sad that you have to be terrified about your kids each time they step outside your door. :hug: Good luck and I hope something gets done soon!

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. Right now I'm working on a petition. Back when the neighborhood was

built, our street was part of the emergency route and thus had to remain open. There are many other ways into the neighborhood now. The city told us to get at least 40 signatures (which should be easy) and they'll look into it. :hi:

[NorthernSpy]

9. terrible

That's awful! Thank heavens the kid didn't die.

I remember reading that even though people perceive the suburbs as safer to live in than the cities, the increase in mortality due to auto accidents (suburbanites drive more) is greater than the decrease in mortality due to lower rates of violent crime. Kind of sobering to think about.

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Yes it is. They don't mind the stop signs as much, because they're

in a neighborhood and think to themselves, "What are the odds?". On this day, the odds were good. :(

[Jamastiene]

12. People drive like maniacs where I live too.

They have no idea what it would be like to hit a person, especially a child, until it is too late. I have had police officer friends complain that I drive too slow, but I drive the speed limit. Speeding is a big problem where I live, IMHO.

I hope the child gets well soon and I hope the girl takes some responsibility for what she did and thinks about this incident if she gets her license back in the future.

All residential neighborhoods should have speed bumps or something, especially where kids play.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. When she first stepped out of the car, she was laughing, but I think

it was nervous laughter. By the time her mother came to get her, she was sobbing. It was awful all the way around, and I really hope they do something. :(

[acmavm]

18. The city put two speed bumps in our street, one right in front of my

house, another up the street. We have kids, a lot of them, in this neighborhood and a grade school at the top of the hill so we have a lot of kids who are targets for the idiots who speed through here.

Day and night we hear the sound of squealing brakes and metal as it scrapes the pavement because the dumbshits don't pay attention to the signs informing them that there are speedbumps in the street. Seriously, we've even seen people go airborn like they just like some Evel Knievel stunt.

Summer's coming and the window's will be open. That's when we get the full effect, especially late at night. And this is a side street.

[Danmel]

19. People drive like nuts on our street too

One particular woman is a real speed demon. She tears out of her driveway like a bat out of hell. And she has two young kids herself- an 11 year old and a 6 year old. One time she nearly hit my son while he was riding his bicycle. She told me "Danny should be more careful" He was doing nothing reckless at all. So I told her she should slow the hell down- there is no need to drive 50 mph on a residential side street that she KNOWS is full of children (at least 25 kids live on my two block long street)riding bikes, playing ball and just running around.
It is really unbelievable. There is just no reason for people to drive that fast around here.

I hope that little boy will be OK. Good luck with the town taking care of the street.

[mopinko]

20. aaarrrggghhh!

we have a corner like that on our block. a kid got hit last summer. people screech to a halt there daily. the stop sign is not worth diddley. nothing to be done here, tho. i live on an arterial street.
they have done a lot of stuff with traffic calming here in chicago. it has really helped, although there are drawbacks. the disabled community has had to squawk pretty loudly to get their needs taken care of.
so, have you got your petitions printed out yet? how big is your town?

[izzie]

21. Silly teen-ages all need to drive and have a gun. Freedom

--

[SheilaT]

22. You bought your house

after only seeing it in the dark? <<blinks in astonishment>>

It sounds like a lot of people drive much too fast for the street. Why?

Speeding high school students are often a tragedy-in-waiting. A couple of years ago on the very first day of school, a high school kid (can't remember, but he may have been a sophomore) eager to leave school, drove much too fast and only two blocks from school hit a school bus and killed himself.

When we were buying this house, I was a little concerned because it's only three houses up from a fairly busy street, and at the time my two boys were 3 and 7. I never let them play in the front yard, for fear they'd wander down to Busy Street.

Fortunately, this street ends a half mile north (it's a T intersection with another street) and if it went through to where it picks up a quarter mile north of that, we would never have bought because this would then be a main road through to a major shopping mall. Instead, it's simply one way of many into this subdivision.

Many's the time I'll be driving somewhere and notice how a once-quiet residential street became a major thoroughfare and feel genuinely sorry for people who live there on what should be a quiet street but isn't.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. No, it was still light out..and then when we had inspection it was

in the morning, when most are at work and school. I was extremely picky..it was the 40th house we looked at...Just at the wrong times.

People are just used to using this street as a connector...even though it doesn't give the impression of being one. :hi:

[SheilaT]

30. Oh, boy.

The house I'm in now we only looked at twice before making the offer, although we'd already paid attention to the fact of the main road in one direction. Plus, there's a Catholic church and school around the corner, and a public elementary school two blocks up.

It would be so easy to nor realize things like your street being used as a connector. Or school traffic, if you'd looked in the summer, even if over a period of weeks.

If your street should truly be a local one only, perhaps your city would be willing to put up the kind of barrier that you'd have to drive slowly around to actually get into the street. I've seen them in certain neighborhoods where they really don't want anyone but locals to come in. Sometimes it's a "keep the unwanted minorities out" kind of thing, but sometimes it's for just the kind of situation you describe.

Nearby high schools can be the worst, although sadly moms in their mini-vans can be a close second in terms of speeding.

[Danmel]

32. There are things you cannot anticipate when you see a house

We saw our house in the late spring/early summer. We didn't know that a tall stand of trees across the street would block winter sunlight and that the are in front of our house would remain snowy and icy long after all the other snow and ice on the street clears. It's like a little skating rink, directly in front of our house!

[SheilaT]

33. I know what you mean.

I've generally been lucky in the houses I've lived in as an adult. Luckily I've moved often enough that I've been able to put certain lessons to good use. I would like to think that I'd notice such a thing as the stand of trees, but if like you I looked at it in late spring or early summer it just might not be obvious. I have learned that if at all possible, when buying a home in a climate with snow and ice in winter, try to have a south facing driveway, so that the sunshine will assist melting.

I've also learned that a house that faces west can get awfully hot on that side in the summer if there's no shade. I try to notice traffic, and once rejected a home because it backed up onto a busy highway.

Another I turned down because it backed up to a public school, and I realized (after seeing it a couple of times at different times of the day) that during the school year I'd be dealing with too much kid noise. But if I'd looked at that particular house during school vacations, I might not have noticed the problem.

The very best house I ever owned was one that was directly across the street from one we'd rented for a year. By moving across the street I got the south facing driveway I prefer, and I already liked the neighborhood. Sadly, a job transfer moved us away within 18 months.

[CottonBear]

23. Feel free to PM me about "traffic calming and speed humps."

I design these for installation on university campuses and public roadways.

Speed bumps are what you see in parking lots.
Speed humps are used on local street and private streets and driveways.
Speed tables and speed plateaus are longer (i.e. a bus can drive on top of one.)

My town has a neighborhood approach to the speeding problem. One must use multiple speed humps in combination with chicanes, landscape bump-outs, cross walks, mini-rounabouts and appropriate signage.

The speed control system must be designed and installed on an entire street or in an entire neighborhood to be most effective.

So sorry about the injured young person. Multiple leg fractures can heal but will be a source of pain and arthritis for the rest of his life. I know: I've sustained a badly broken ankle. It is stiff and my tendons are shortened even after PT. My dad was an Orthopaedic Surgeon. This young man has a long road to recovery but he will never be the same.

[AFSCME girl]

26. Aww, that's terrible!

Poor little guy :-( That always seems to be the way, too. Something unfortunate has to happen before any action is taken. x(

[davsand]

27. I live in a School Zone--and people drive like speed demons.

I can't TELL you how pissed I get at these assholes that drive like bats out of hell in a f***ing school zone. I have called the sheriff a few times, I have written letters to the newspapers and I have even parked my carcass in the front yard with a megaphone to YELL at speeders. (I actually had ONE guy stop to argue with me.)

My next thing is I'm threatening to take down license plate numbers of people who habitually speed thru here and then write a letter to the newspaper asking them publicly WHY they drive so fast in a school zone on a regular basis. Screw them if they don't like it. MY kid and several others are out there and they deserve to be safe.

I really don't care if they think I'm nuts. If it keeps ONE kid safe I'll figure it is worth it. In some ways I'm wondering if crazy might not be a good thing--if they think I'm crazy enough maybe they'll take me seriously.

Laura, I'm sorry you had it happen in your neighborhood. I do hope your city will take you seriously now about slowing those drivers down.



Laura

[GreenPartyVoter]

28. Oh my heavens! Both those kids will be traumatized for life but the teen

really should have known better.

[Zuni]

29. oh my

That is just awful.
Recently, a guy I played music with had his cat escape. He chased it into his front yard and a car came roaring by at 60 mph down a residential street and killed his cat. :grr: The guy was driving so fast he didn't even stop. :mad:

[Pithlet]

31. Everyone's worst nightmare

I'm glad the little guy is going to be okay, but that must have been thoroughly horrifying.

I live on a hill and people love to race down our street, even though it is a side street in a subdivision. We are at a curve, so I don't let my kids play in the front yard. I may when they're older, under supervision. I'm terrified someone will come barreling down that hill right into our yard. I'll hear a screech of tires every once in awhile, and my heart stops.