School Children Face Deadly Hazard in Urbana

There is a school crossing at Oregon and Vine, the kind with flashing yellow lights, and a sign depicting a child in silhouette crossing with an adult, and white zebra stripes painted on the street. But every day at least 20 Urbana school children who walk to Leal Elementary School along this route play a deadly game of “Frogger” with unyielding motorists. At least two, possibly more, have already been struck.

My own kids and I have experienced this frequently. Some motorists barrel through even after others have stopped, even swerving around children and parents in the crosswalk. Some drivers honk or shout profanities.

Neighborhood parents and children have recently begun counting cars that refuse to yield to them as they attempt to get across. Numbers so far range from about 12 to over 50 violators interefring with each pedestrian attempt to cross.

Yet parents in the East Urbana neighborhood say their pleas for a crossing guard have fallen on deaf ears. For starters, many calls to the Urbana police have yielded little effect. One day I called to report an incident, and the officer told me the police could do nothing without a license plate number – in other words, they won’t do anything preventative. A few days later, dutifully calling again with a license plate number after a frightening near-miss, I spoke to an officer who told me the police can do nothing with a license plate number - unless an officer witnesses the incident.

Insistent, I eventually got through to Shawn Crowley, an incredibly unsympathetic person whose title is Crossing Guard Supervisor. I could nearly hear her eyes rolling over the phone. Her suggestion about crossing at Oregon and Vine: don’t.

Pedestrians beware

The national Center for Disease Control reports a sharp decline in the number of children walking or biking to school between 1969 and 2001 – from 42 percent to 18 percent, including a drop among children who live within two miles of their school from 87 to 63 percent, and among children who live within one mile of the school from 49 to 18 percent. The second most common reason given, after increased distance from schools, is traffic danger.

Traffic congestion has increased nationwide by over 500 percent in the same period.

Some statitics may be misleading: the number of school children hit on their way to school is actually down, but this decline is not as pronounced as the decrease in children walking or biking to school (so-called "active transportation"). In other words, fewer kids are getting hit than 1969, but the kids who are still walking are more likely to get hit than 30 years ago.

Pedestrian injury is the third-leading cause of death for US children between 5 and 14 years old. Over 1300 school-aged children were hit by cars in Illinois in 2004, and many more adults. Children aged 4-7 were twice as likely to be killed in these crashes as children aged 8-11, who were in turn 50 percent more likely to be killed than kids aged 12-15.

National surveys show high numbers of motorists running stop signs, speeding through intersections instead of yielding and generally endangering pedestrians. Some schools have gone so far as to enact policies banning "active transportation" to school. Urbana schools, on the other hand, have recognized the health and other benefits of walking to school for years. Every year in October, for example, Leal celebrates National Walk-to-School Day, and many school crossings - particularly within the "squeaky wheel" turf of the West Urbana Neighborhood Association where many University faculty live - do have crossing guards.

Musical crossing guards

There was actually a crossing guard at Oregon and Vine until about three years ago, when local officials decided another intersection, at Lincoln and Fairview, needed a crossing guard more. Parents I have talked to in East Urbana do not begrudge those crossing Lincoln a crossing guard, but merely ask why it has to be either/or.

There are also crossing guards at other intersections on the way to Leal with much less traffic and some crossings with two guards at least in the morning, reportedly for the safety of the guards.

Since the crossing guard was moved from Oregon and Vine, at least two children have been hit by cars crossing Vine on their way to school, some say more.

Crowley says the so-called “safe route” across Vine has been shifted two blocks north to Illinois, where there is a traffic light. She says the School District changed the route and that the district distributes “safe route” maps. Asked why, if Oregon and Vine is no longer a "safe route" to Leal School, the City does not remove the school crossing sign there, Crowley answers, "It cost too much."

The alleged "safe route" shift is news to Carol Baker at the Urbana School District, and to Leal School officials, who say the designated “safe route” is still Oregon and Vine as far as they know.

Some parents say they have never seen these maps at all. Leal parent Christina Nordstrom says the most recent map she received still shows Oregon as the “safe route”. And in fact the flashing yellow lights and painted crosswalk at Oregon send a daily message to children, many of whom cross Vine without an adult, that Oregon is the place they are supposed to cross. This is reinforced by the fact that all the signs and crosswalks presently form a straight line from East Urbana to Leal due west along Oregon.

Every other school crossing in the neighborhood is on Oregon. And with flashing yellow lights, which the other crossings generally do not have, why would a child, or a parent, imagine they should cross Vine anywhere but Oregon?

Parents moreover complain that the intersection at Illinois is also dangerous for children, citing the four lanes and the short time for crossing. Press the button to cross Vine, and even at an adult stride the crossing light begins to flash by the time a pedestrian can get halfway across. There have also been recent incidents of cars almost hitting school children in the crosswalk at Illinois – and there isn’t a school crossing marked there.

Moreover, further investigation reveals that the "safe route" maps have not been printed this year, much less distributed.

Supervisor Crowley also says she has no control over crossing guard placement. She says that authority rests with the City’s
Traffic Commission and a Safety Committee of school and other officials.

But Carol Baker with the School District says, although there once was a Safety Committee, which made “recommendations” – she emphasizes the word – for crossing guard placement, “they never listened” – and so the committee hasn’t met for about two years.

Baker also says the School District has been requesting a new crossing guard specifically at Oregon and Vine for the last two years to no avail.

Barbara Stiehl, secretary for the Traffic Commission, also says the Commission does not have that authority either. What the Traffic Commission could do is put in a school crossing, but there is already one there. Stiehl says the authority to assign crossing guards rests with the police.

Urbana Police Chief Mike Bily says he has ordered a reassessment of the crossing, to see if it merits a guard. Budget restraints, he says, would mean that the guard would have to come from another crossing where he/she may also be needed. The City Council has the authority to increase this budget, but according to school officials the Council has been unwilling to do so.

Bily says a police car is also supposed to be stationed at Oregon and Vine most mornings and afternoons during crossing times in the bank parking lot nearby, watching traffic and counting kids. Naturally, he points out, the officer may be called away at times.

But in the last two weeks the car has not been spotted in the lot once, neither morning nor afternoon. Parents also report that the last time an assessment was done it was during pouring rain, when fewer kids walk. Christina Nordstrom also points out that the number of kids who do cross on a given day is not so useful a number – so many parents refuse to allow their children to cross there because it is so dangerous. Examples turned out to be easy to find.

The police did install a speed trailer at Oregon and Vine displaying the speed of passing cars - “as a result of our squeaks”, says Nordstrom. And that has slowed the traffic down. More cars may be stopping for kids to cross, too. But the trailer is temporary, and many cars still do not stop for kids.

This year over 70 Leal School students live east of Vine Street within potential walking distance of the Oregon and Vine crossing. Parents say a crossing guard costs around $3500 – but what, they ask, is the price of a child’s life?