Commitment to safety doesn’t flag

Pedestrian accident prompts Newport Harbor students to mount crosswalk campaign.NEWPORT BEACH -- The wind whistled around Newport Harbor High School Monday morning, shaking the branches of trees and bending street signs back and forth. It wasn’t the most auspicious weather for setting up traffic flags, but the members of the school’s Student Political Action Committee pressed on anyway.

Shortly after 7 a.m., three committee officers stationed themselves by a pair of crosswalks outside the campus. Junior Amy Staudinger and senior Lara Schilling occupied both sides of the crosswalk on 15th Street, across from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, while junior Blair Belling took the intersection of Irvine Avenue and Margaret Drive by herself.

On each side of the crosswalks were wooden stands containing five orange flags apiece. The girls’ job was to alert pedestrians to the action committee’s new safety campaign and persuade them to carry a flag as they crossed. They met with varying responses -- both from the breezes that often scattered the flags to the pavement, and from the students themselves.

“Some people kind of laugh, but other people are receptive and take the flags with them,” said Lara, 17.

“Overall, I think it does a good job of reminding drivers that the crosswalk exists. They see these things on the sidewalk and automatically slow down.”

A moment later, a male student approached her from the other side of the street, sullenly holding a flag over his head.

“I feel like a [expletive] 4-year-old,” he told Lara as he slid the flag into the stand.

“No, you become safer to oncoming traffic,” she corrected him.

Monday marked the first day of the safety campaign at Newport Harbor, as action committee members monitored the crosswalks before and after school and at break and lunch to remind students to carry the flags with them.

The committee, led by advisor Phil D’Agostino, initiated the project after a student driver hit a pedestrian on one of the crosswalks last December.

The flags, which the action committee intends to keep up indefinitely, are the first part of a larger push for safer crosswalks at Newport Harbor.

D’Agostino said last week that the club’s next step was to approach the Newport Beach City Council about implementing stop signs, blinking lights on the pavement or another permanent measure.

Committee president Laure Kohne, a senior, said the club planned to meet with school resource officer Steve Martinez about the campaign later this week.

In the meantime, she had drawn up a schedule for different committee members to perform crosswalk duty through Friday afternoon.

On Monday, after a week of morning announcements describing the new safety measure, students finally passed the flags on their way to and from class.

Some picked up the flags on their own, while the action committee members had to remind others to obey the signs posted on the tall stands.

A few students declined the request and crossed the street on their own.

On the whole, though, the committee got a positive response.

“I think it’s good, but it’s a little silly,” said junior Kristina Heimstaedt, 16.

“It’s a little awkward to cross the street waving a flag.”

On the whole, though, Kristina said she welcomed the new safeguard -- and that students who weren’t shy about the flags were more likely to cause drivers to slow down.

“It depends on how you hold them,” she said.

“If you walk across the street waving it like a maniac, it makes a difference.”

Due to miscommunications, the crosswalks were left unattended at some moments on Monday, but D’Agostino said the campaign still got off to a promising start.

“We’re working out the bugs, but in the morning it went very well,” he said.

“We’re confident that we can work it out this week and have a place that’s a little safer.”20060124itkqy9ncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Students Chris Womble, front, Buck Evans and Brittany Klehm wave brightly colored safety flags while crossing 15th Street near Newport Harbor High School.