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.
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 in Park Slope, 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.
“The safety of our kids is too important not to do everything we can to protect them,” said City Councilmember David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights). “More kids die and get hurt in New York from car accidents than anything else. The streets around our schools should be the safest streets in the city.”
“Getting to and from school should not be a dangerous activity for our children,” said Councilmember Bill de Blasio (D–Park Slope). “The deaths of two Brooklyn school children, who were struck by a car in 2004, serve as a tragic reminder of the importance of street safety and the need to provide safe crossings around schools.
“The Department of Transportation’s ‘Safe Routes to Schools’ program is a step in the right direction of protecting our children from unnecessary harm,” he continued. “Common sense measures like new traffic signals, speed bumps, and increasing the number of crosswalks are simple ways we can help prevent another tragedy.”
For a full list of Brooklyn schools receiving safety improvements, log onto www.nyc.gov/dot.
