Editor: Plaudits to Coun. Conor Allin and Chatham-Kent’s general manager of infrastructure for addressing future concerns regarding the safety of pedestrians accessing the new St. Clair Community Park on Bear Line once it opens.
To the point of installing a traffic light, sidewalks and turn lanes? Amazing. Those are necessary and vital plans for the safety of all, including the children mentioned by Allin, from the school two blocks away.
The children from that same school, Ecole Ste. Marie on Dale Drive, every day have to walk from the neighbourhood and beyond to their school if they are not transported on one of the many buses that the school draws. Those same children from north of Dale Drive, the Twilight Trail neighbourhood, all have to cross the very busy Dale Drive intersection, dodging non-stop traffic, to get there.
For 16 years, my husband has been advocating for a four-way stop for the safety of those children at Dale Drive and Twilight Trail. He has spoken to representatives of the city up to and including Mayor Canniff. We got nothing in return.
There is simply a school zone sign at either side of the school for 40 kph which is totally ignored by all drivers, including the school buses which pass the school in order to pick up children for other schools.
At least eight buses, twice a day, in every direction, go through that intersection. Some stop at the corner to pick up, others go right through, late for their next stop.
Children as young as four years old have to cross Dale Drive where no traffic necessarily stops for them, and it is just a tragedy waiting to happen. Kids also scoot across the street on bikes, between parked cars and otherwise. Everyone is in such a hurry to drop off kids at the daycare or the school that the safety of the young pedestrians should be a huge concern.
Whenever the city is contacted, the response basically is “well nothing has happened yet” or “we don’t use stop signs for speed control”. But that’s exactly what is required in a school zone where the lives and well-being of our most precious commodity are at risk.
I am asking the city once more, and the general manager of infrastructure, that when they are busily making everything perfect for the new playground, to please just look down the street and stick up a couple of stop signs before it’s too late and we all wonder how such a tragedy could have occurred.
It’s a miracle it hasn’t happened yet.
Rosemary Robb
Chatham
