Anonymous wrote:It's being reported that the driver is affiliated with the school - not sure if it is another parent, a staff member or something else.

Bet you anything it’s a drop-off parent being insanely selfish and doing a uturn backing into the kids in the crosswalk. Or taking a right turn into the crosswalk. How awful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am always amazed that parents do not walk their ES and MS children to school in this country. Mainly because the traffic here is so insane and there are so many rash and distracted drivers on the road.

I am sure that many others will call me a helicopter parent etc, but I was vigilant to prevent my kids against accidents and crime because of such kinds of tragic news. Was it convenient for me to do so? Of course not!

Well bully for you! Not all parents have the ability to do this. Way to blame the families.

Yes super insensitive.

Anonymous wrote:I am always amazed that parents do not walk their ES and MS children to school in this country. Mainly because the traffic here is so insane and there are so many rash and distracted drivers on the road.

I am sure that many others will call me a helicopter parent etc, but I was vigilant to prevent my kids against accidents and crime because of such kinds of tragic news. Was it convenient for me to do so? Of course not!

Well bully for you! Not all parents have the ability to do this. Way to blame the families.

My brother goes to this school, they have no busses. All kids are to walk or get dropped off by parents. You also cannot drop your kid off on school property because they have the parking lot blocked off. You have to park your car a block, sometimes 2 blocks away and walk your children to the school. I have not seen a single crossing guard in the mornings at any of the intersections in well over a month. Most of the time the police are the ones assisting kids to cross the road. The staff are great, but the traffic situation is dangerous and needs to be improved. My heart goes out to these children and their families. If there was a crossing guard there this morning this could have been prevented.

I am always amazed that parents do not walk their ES and MS children to school in this country. Mainly because the traffic here is so insane and there are so many rash and distracted drivers on the road.

I am sure that many others will call me a helicopter parent etc, but I was vigilant to prevent my kids against accidents and crime because of such kinds of tragic news. Was it convenient for me to do so? Of course not!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We walk to/from school and people will NOT stop to let us cross. Drivers 100% see us, start to slow and then change their minds because apparently, 45 seconds is too insurmountable for their day. Its a T-intersection and only the one road has a stop sign but all directions should have a stop sign with flashing pedestrian lights and cameras for when people dont stop. I wish they would make pedestrian signs that flashed and when hit by a pedestrian turned all lights to STOP signs.

PG county has even more of a burden to increase pedestrian safety BECAUSE they wont provide busing for students that live close. I think its 1.5 mile radius for our local elementary. We have no crossing guard at the intersection we cross but the annex 1/2mile up the same street has one for HS students.

Even more than who? MCPS doesn't provide short bus rides either.

Im not familiar with other county bussing rules. This is about PG county and I live in PG county. So Im not sure why you need to bring MoCo into everything. It has more of a burden to BECAUSE it doesnt provide bussing for all students and those inside the radius must either walk or ride bikes if their parents are not able to give them a ride, which is super counterintuitive since more cars in the area around the school makes it more dangerous for walkers. PG county has to ensure student safety to the best of the ability while on buses correct? Why would they not be held to the same standard for walkers? Meaning that the county has more of a burden to increase pedestrian safety because of their policies, which is fine but you either pay for buses or you pay for walk/bike safety.

As far as I know, all school districts in Maryland have similar policies. Unfortunately, while school districts and county governments understand the burden of paying for school buses, they do not understand the burden of paying for streets that are safe for kids who walk or ride bikes to school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We walk to/from school and people will NOT stop to let us cross. Drivers 100% see us, start to slow and then change their minds because apparently, 45 seconds is too insurmountable for their day. Its a T-intersection and only the one road has a stop sign but all directions should have a stop sign with flashing pedestrian lights and cameras for when people dont stop. I wish they would make pedestrian signs that flashed and when hit by a pedestrian turned all lights to STOP signs.

PG county has even more of a burden to increase pedestrian safety BECAUSE they wont provide busing for students that live close. I think its 1.5 mile radius for our local elementary. We have no crossing guard at the intersection we cross but the annex 1/2mile up the same street has one for HS students.

Even more than who? MCPS doesn't provide short bus rides either.

Im not familiar with other county bussing rules. This is about PG county and I live in PG county. So Im not sure why you need to bring MoCo into everything. It has more of a burden to BECAUSE it doesnt provide bussing for all students and those inside the radius must either walk or ride bikes if their parents are not able to give them a ride, which is super counterintuitive since more cars in the area around the school makes it more dangerous for walkers. PG county has to ensure student safety to the best of the ability while on buses correct? Why would they not be held to the same standard for walkers? Meaning that the county has more of a burden to increase pedestrian safety because of their policies, which is fine but you either pay for buses or you pay for walk/bike safety.

Anonymous wrote:Maryland needs tougher driving laws AND needs to enforce those laws. I say that as a Maryland driver. Enough.

+1

It’s really absurd because speeding saves you little to no time on any trip, and if pedestrians feel unsafe and parents start driving their kids to school then traffic gets much worse. There is no logic in speeding but it is so rampant. We see no enforcement in anne arundel and no traffic cameras are allowed per county law.

I drive through Riverdale Park a couple of mornings a week and must have driven past this intersection on East West Highway right before or after this accident. It is awful.
I am not sure if there is a guard at the entrance to the school but there is a very assertive crossing guard at the intersection of East West Highway and Taylor Rd.
From the TV footage, it looks like the van was headed east. If that's right, there are a series of stops signs on Riverdale road which would make it hard to gain too much speed, unless you blew through all of them.
The PGCPS schools my kids attend have crossing guards across the major roads but not at neighborhood 4 way stops.
That school serves a lot of lower income families and I hope that someone puts together a Go Fund Me to help the families impacted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed + a moron looking at their phone

Driving today is like a death match

Irresponsible for you to speculate like that.

e
DP. WTF?

What person who is paying attention to the road, blows through children in a crosswalk? I would strongly bet the person was on their phone.

It is utterly irresponsible for you to speculate and jump to conclusions. Two children are dead. Have some goddamn respect.

You are either a troll, or someone truly committed to supporting texting while driving.

NO one is making light of the fact that two children were senselessly killed by an irresponsible and distracted driver. And cell phones are a BIG contributor to distracted driving.

It’s amazing how you have no actual knowledge of the case but have already convicted the driver of distracted driving. Wow.

Maybe you should sit the rest of this thread out.

Either the driver was distracted or… what? They were paying attention? Are you saying they hit the kids intentionally?

Or lots of things? Certainly possible the driver was distracted (you seem extremely eager to push that). Maybe the driver was drunk. Maybe the driver had a seizure. Maybe the driver was going 100 mph. Maybe the driver was going 10 mph. Maybe it wasn't even the driver's fault. It could be anything. That's why we have the police investigate.

A driver hit and killed two children at an elementary school around 8 am today. There isn't any public information yet about what the driver did. But probably the driver would give anything in the world not to have done it.

Anonymous wrote:
We walk to/from school and people will NOT stop to let us cross. Drivers 100% see us, start to slow and then change their minds because apparently, 45 seconds is too insurmountable for their day. Its a T-intersection and only the one road has a stop sign but all directions should have a stop sign with flashing pedestrian lights and cameras for when people dont stop. I wish they would make pedestrian signs that flashed and when hit by a pedestrian turned all lights to STOP signs.

PG county has even more of a burden to increase pedestrian safety BECAUSE they wont provide busing for students that live close. I think its 1.5 mile radius for our local elementary. We have no crossing guard at the intersection we cross but the annex 1/2mile up the same street has one for HS students.

Even more than who? MCPS doesn't provide short bus rides either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed + a moron looking at their phone

Driving today is like a death match

Irresponsible for you to speculate like that.

e
DP. WTF?

What person who is paying attention to the road, blows through children in a crosswalk? I would strongly bet the person was on their phone.

It is utterly irresponsible for you to speculate and jump to conclusions. Two children are dead. Have some goddamn respect.

You are either a troll, or someone truly committed to supporting texting while driving.

NO one is making light of the fact that two children were senselessly killed by an irresponsible and distracted driver. And cell phones are a BIG contributor to distracted driving.

It’s amazing how you have no actual knowledge of the case but have already convicted the driver of distracted driving. Wow.

Maybe you should sit the rest of this thread out.

Either the driver was distracted or… what? They were paying attention? Are you saying they hit the kids intentionally?

You could wait to hear the facts. You don’t sound like someone who is patient enough to gather all the info in order to make a correct assessment.

In DC, two pedestrians walked into the crosswalk on my green light. I stopped at the green and prayed no one would hit me from behind. If I had been hit from behind and then hit these two people, I would have people like you say I was looking at my phone.

Calm down and wait for actual details.

Stop hyperbolizing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed + a moron looking at their phone

Driving today is like a death match

Irresponsible for you to speculate like that.

e
DP. WTF?

What person who is paying attention to the road, blows through children in a crosswalk? I would strongly bet the person was on their phone.

It is utterly irresponsible for you to speculate and jump to conclusions. Two children are dead. Have some goddamn respect.

You are either a troll, or someone truly committed to supporting texting while driving.

NO one is making light of the fact that two children were senselessly killed by an irresponsible and distracted driver. And cell phones are a BIG contributor to distracted driving.

It’s amazing how you have no actual knowledge of the case but have already convicted the driver of distracted driving. Wow.

Maybe you should sit the rest of this thread out.

Either the driver was distracted or… what? They were paying attention? Are you saying they hit the kids intentionally?

Or lots of things? Certainly possible the driver was distracted (you seem extremely eager to push that). Maybe the driver was drunk. Maybe the driver had a seizure. Maybe the driver was going 100 mph. Maybe the driver was going 10 mph. Maybe it wasn't even the driver's fault. It could be anything. That's why we have the police investigate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed + a moron looking at their phone

Driving today is like a death match

Irresponsible for you to speculate like that.

e
DP. WTF?

What person who is paying attention to the road, blows through children in a crosswalk? I would strongly bet the person was on their phone.

It is utterly irresponsible for you to speculate and jump to conclusions. Two children are dead. Have some goddamn respect.

You are either a troll, or someone truly committed to supporting texting while driving.

NO one is making light of the fact that two children were senselessly killed by an irresponsible and distracted driver. And cell phones are a BIG contributor to distracted driving.

It’s amazing how you have no actual knowledge of the case but have already convicted the driver of distracted driving. Wow.

Maybe you should sit the rest of this thread out.

Either the driver was distracted or… what? They were paying attention? Are you saying they hit the kids intentionally?

You could wait to hear the facts. You don’t sound like someone who is patient enough to gather all the info in order to make a correct assessment.

In DC, two pedestrians walked into the crosswalk on my green light. I stopped at the green and prayed no one would hit me from behind. If I had been hit from behind and then hit these two people, I would have people like you say I was looking at my phone.

Calm down and wait for actual details.

I’m so sad for the children and their families. This is a dangerous area to drive in during the start and end of school. I used to drive my own kids to school and we could choose a route that included the road of this elementary school.

I stopped driving down that road because the pedestrians jaywalk and the sidewalks are narrow, especially on a little bridge (if I recall correctly).

The county should shut down the whole road except to residents and school goers during drop off and pick up.

I drove VERY slowly and and scanned side to side constantly and still found the street crowded and poorly managed. I started avoiding that road and taking the larger roads Kenilworth and East West to stay off of this smaller road and its pedestrians going every which way.

Let’s hope the country schools can improve safety whether with speed bumps, crossing guards or something else to prevent this from happening again.