LETTER OF THE WEEK

While perilous tales such as, “When I was your age I had to walk eight

miles to school, in bare feet, with snow up to my waist, through live

mine fields...” are incredulous to hear, we can probably all agree that

we don’t want our children to encounter danger or extreme discomfort on

their daily trek to school. Apparently crossing Newport Coast Drive looms

as a threat to future Newport Coast Elementary School students (“Is

safety as important as aesthetics?” Community Commentary, Feb. 8).

Safety to and from school is an essential issue that concerns all

parents. Even though the commentary specifically addresses the perceived

need for a footbridge at Newport Coast Elementary, the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District and our communities need to thoroughly examine

the impact of traffic on all of our students.

Unfortunately, action to improve safety is frequently neglected until a

tragic accident occurs. There are extremely dangerous intersections,

crosswalks and even parking lots at every campus in our district. Many

parents are concerned about specific traffic hazards, some have

complained, but many hazardous conditions have persisted for years with

very little effort applied to correct them.

While not every school is asking for a footbridge, some schools

desperately need a crossing guard, or traffic lights or at least a few

well-placed orange cones. This is a great opportunity to examine the

accessibility and safety of all our campuses in regard to the

students-versus-vehicles issue.

Some of the schools in our district have coped with precarious traffic

situations surrounding their campuses, but just because a tragic accident

has not occurred does not justify allowing these dangerous conditions to

continue.

This would also be a good time to explore new solutions to old problems.

Schools near intersections with traffic lights should analyze the timing

of the green lights for pedestrians and ensure that the light stays green

long enough for a group of small children, with short legs, to cross

safely.

Maybe radical changes need to be made to our traffic control surrounding

schools. As an added safety precaution, maybe a signal should stay red in

all directions when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. There could be stop

signs, or even ringing bells, flashing red lights and protective gates

(think train-crossing intersections) at all crosswalks.

Ensuring our children have a safe arrival at school is ultimately the

responsibility of parents. However, if potentially unsafe conditions

threaten the safety of our children on a daily basis then our community

needs to take action.

Our school district is fortunate that many bright, creative, concerned

individuals dwell in this community. If enough great minds combine forces

on the issue of safe travel to school then some terrific solutions will

be found to prevent future tales of: “When I was your age we had to cross

a six-lane highway, with no crossing guard...”

BARBARA MORIHIRO

Costa Mesa