Anyone know how kid hit by car near Deal a few weeks ago is doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He was hit on Nebraska during school drop off and left in an ambulance. There have been a ton of accidents at that crazy intersection of Nebraska/Davenport/Fort Drive. Drivers are constantly speeding, texting, turning, honking, running the light, dropping kids off anywhere and everywhere, blocking traffic, etc. There only two crossing guards to oversee five crosswalks, not to mention a blind spot because there's a hill at that part of Nebraska. The whole clusterf--- needs to be redesigned.

All the redesigns in the world wouldn't have prevented this, as others have pointed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He was hit on Nebraska during school drop off and left in an ambulance. There have been a ton of accidents at that crazy intersection of Nebraska/Davenport/Fort Drive. Drivers are constantly speeding, texting, turning, honking, running the light, dropping kids off anywhere and everywhere, blocking traffic, etc. There only two crossing guards to oversee five crosswalks, not to mention a blind spot because there's a hill at that part of Nebraska. The whole clusterf--- needs to be redesigned.

If you think about it over 1000 kids a day make it to and from Deal generally safely each day. I am not sure if a redesign is in order or if there needs to be some traffic calming devices in place. A large part of the problem are the parents who drop kids at random locations. We live right by Deal and the amount of crazy driving by the Deal parents is ridiculous. Yes the pulling a Uturn instead of driving around the loop is truly the laziest of behaviors but I have watched parents drop their kids off from the left lane of Nebraska while there was a green light! They just couldn't get over so they just stop and let the kids out in the middle of traffic! I wish the school would put someone out front to stop the Uturns and to talk to parents about safe driving -- not that it would do any good.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was hit on Nebraska during school drop off and left in an ambulance. There have been a ton of accidents at that crazy intersection of Nebraska/Davenport/Fort Drive. Drivers are constantly speeding, texting, turning, honking, running the light, dropping kids off anywhere and everywhere, blocking traffic, etc. There only two crossing guards to oversee five crosswalks, not to mention a blind spot because there's a hill at that part of Nebraska. The whole clusterf--- needs to be redesigned.

If you think about it over 1000 kids a day make it to and from Deal generally safely each day. I am not sure if a redesign is in order or if there needs to be some traffic calming devices in place. A large part of the problem are the parents who drop kids at random locations. We live right by Deal and the amount of crazy driving by the Deal parents is ridiculous. Yes the pulling a Uturn instead of driving around the loop is truly the laziest of behaviors but I have watched parents drop their kids off from the left lane of Nebraska while there was a green light! They just couldn't get over so they just stop and let the kids out in the middle of traffic! I wish the school would put someone out front to stop the Uturns and to talk to parents about safe driving -- not that it would do any good.....

Complain Complain Complain. To the city, not to the school. My son is at a charter school and the traffic complaints became so frequent that there is now at least one police officer parked out front during both drop off and pick up with their lights flashing. There's still congestion, but people are less likely to pull the same crap they did before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stupid parent.

If you mean the kid's parent, we don't know if she told him to get out because it looked like the coast was clear or if he just decided to hop out on his own. Regardless, I'm sure the parent was wracked with guilt, as was the driver who hit him. Don't blame the victim; focus on a way to prevent a worse incident. This is not the first kid to get hit at that intersection. I've had several close calls there myself even when I had the right of way as a pedestrian. I live near there and I have seen a lot of accidents. People coming up the hill apparently don't see the light in time (perhaps because there are several sets of lights or the sun is in their eyes or they can't figure out if they're supposed to stop at Fort Drive or Davenport) and they breeze right through. There are no marked turn lanes. The streets don't line up properly, which goes back to how they were developed back in the day when the grid was put in. The new signals have helped somewhat but a car hit one of the poles a couple months back and the crossing signal has been cockeyed ever since. That's actually the signal on the crosswalk where the student was hit.

The congestion at this intersection is only going to get worse once Murch moves back into its building on Davenport, so the city really needs to get on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid parent.

If you mean the kid's parent, we don't know if she told him to get out because it looked like the coast was clear or if he just decided to hop out on his own. Regardless, I'm sure the parent was wracked with guilt, as was the driver who hit him. Don't blame the victim; focus on a way to prevent a worse incident. This is not the first kid to get hit at that intersection. I've had several close calls there myself even when I had the right of way as a pedestrian. I live near there and I have seen a lot of accidents. People coming up the hill apparently don't see the light in time (perhaps because there are several sets of lights or the sun is in their eyes or they can't figure out if they're supposed to stop at Fort Drive or Davenport) and they breeze right through. There are no marked turn lanes. The streets don't line up properly, which goes back to how they were developed back in the day when the grid was put in. The new signals have helped somewhat but a car hit one of the poles a couple months back and the crossing signal has been cockeyed ever since. That's actually the signal on the crosswalk where the student was hit.

The congestion at this intersection is only going to get worse once Murch moves back into its building on Davenport, so the city really needs to get on it.

If the parent let them get out of the car on Nebraska Avenue then this is on that parent. The only way this would be remotely safe and reasonable is if they were stopped at a right light and in the right westbound lane but if that is the case the child should have been able to step out and directly on the treebox. Even then given how uncooperative kids can be a parent should really not be letting them out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is news to me and I got the city to re-work that intersection and add pedestrian crossing signals which didn't used to be there.

Was he crossing against the light?

News to me and I work at Deal! Principal Neal usually lets us know about any such issues that may impact Deal or Wilson.

Maybe the principal was too distracted with Chief Justice Sonya Sotomayor's visit to Deal that day. I don't mean that in a snarky way or anything. Right after the accident happened, two Secret Service SUVs were stuck behind the car of the kid who was hit, and the police finally directed them through to Deal. Just adding to an already surreal morning.