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A safer route to school

The city is implementing safety improvements at local schools.

The work is part of a program to ensure that children make it to and from school without incident.

“‘Safe Routes to Schools’ takes a comprehensive view of the streets surrounding schools and tailors our best measures to reduce pedestrian accidents,” said city Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

This is the second round of the program – the first was implemented in 2006 at 135 schools in the city.

This time around, 46 schools in Brooklyn will receive safety improvements, including new crosswalks, speed humps, painted medians and traffic calming measures. There will also be timing changes to traffic signals to give pedestrians additional time to cross the street and the installation of new signals.

“We must calm traffic in areas near our children’s schools,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner. “Better signs, clearer crosswalks and better enforcement will need to be implemented.”

Local elected officials applauded the program since several Brooklyn schoolchildren have lost their lives in traffic accidents.

In 2006, six-year-old Andy Vega ran ahead of his babysitter while waiting to cross the street at 46th Street and Third Avenue and was hit by a truck. The tragedy occurred near Vega’s school, P.S. 1 at 309 47th Street, which lacked a crossing guard at its 46th Street and Third Avenue corner. Parents believe Vega’s death could have been prevented if there had been better safety measures in the area.

P.S. 124, located at 515 Fourth Avenue, recently opened a new state-of-the-art playground and dedicated the space to three late children who attended the school – Juan Angel Estrada, Victor Flores and Vivian Calixto.

In 2004, Estrada and Flores, then 10 and 11 years old, were struck and killed by a 14-wheel truck while walking across Third Avenue near Ninth Street.

The year prior, Calixto was killed in a car accident in Mexico shortly after graduating from P.S. 124.

“Our children need to focus on their school work, not dodging cars on the way to class,” said City Councilmember Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island).

“Traffic accidents are the leading cause of child injury/fatalities in New York City and half of child pedestrian injury/deaths occurred within 700 feet of a school,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler. “We can protect these children and prevent fatalities with a few common sense safety measures.”

But traffic improvements aren’t the only answer.

“We have to work to ensure that all schools are safe for our children,” Recchia said. “Signage and new traffic signals aren’t enough though. We have to do more to educate children about how to carefully navigate traffic and we have to educate adults about the need to exercise caution around schools.”

For a full list of Brooklyn schools receiving safety improvements, log onto www.nyc.gov/dot.