Dear PS 107 Families,
By now, many of you may be aware of a frightening incident that occurred around the time of morning drop-off on 8th Avenue and 12th Street. Several PS 107 families were crossing 8th Avenue at 12th Street when a driver turning left onto 8th Avenue decided to continue driving through the crosswalk, even though there were children and parents crossing who had the right-of-way. One of our parents stood between the children and the car, preventing a serious tragedy from occurring, but getting injured in the process himself.
Traffic violence like this is a scourge on New York City and the most likely way that any one of us will be seriously injured or even killed as we go about our daily lives. I lie awake at night worrying that one of my loved ones will be hit by a car as they are going to work, to school, or when running an errand. I am furious by the lack of traffic enforcement on the streets of our city -- even more so following this morning's incident.
Because of this lack of enforcement, we must protect ourselves and our children. Please, please urge your children to be extremely vigilant when they are walking by themselves. Please remind them to cross with the light and to be aware of people who are driving erratically or aggressively. Please model these behaviors when you are with your children. Even with all of this, as happened today, tragedy can still occur (or very nearly occur).
Just last week, educators from Vision Zero visited all of our 4th and 5th grade classrooms to discuss pedestrian safety. If your children are in these grades, ask them what they learned. Note that, as a school, we do not recommend that children younger than 4th grade walk by themselves, as they are still developing their ability to assess risk.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have ideas for improving traffic safety on 8th Avenue. We have already tried various things, including advocating for a speed camera near our school (a Department of Transportation assessment following our request stated that it was not necessary -- we can certainly try again, though).
Please be safe out there,
Joanna