Villa Park : 30 Protest Against Dangerous Crosswalk

About 30 parents and students from Cerro Villa Junior High School staged a demonstration Friday against the city’s reluctance to make a dangerous crosswalk on a heavily traveled intersection more safe.

Two Cerro Villa students have died in the last month from injuries suffered when cars struck them on the crosswalk at the intersection of Taft and Nichols avenues near the front entrance of Villa Park High School. At least 10 other students have been injured in the same area during the past six years.

Mitchell Soper, 12, a seventh-grader, died Wednesday from injuries suffered when his bicycle was struck by a car at the intersection on Jan. 10. Jeff Dagley, 13, was killed in mid-December while crossing at the intersection.

The 30 students and parents demonstrated on the curb near the intersection, which students from Cerro Villa, Villa Park High School and two elementary schools in the area use to get to and from school every day. The high number of injuries and deaths has prompted parents and school officials to pressure city officials to take steps, such as installing a traffic light, to reduce the danger to pedestrians and motorists.

City officials say their studies have shown that traffic lights or stop signs would not be sufficient to deal with the problem because motorists would tend to ignore them.

Parents in Villa Park scheduled a meeting for Friday to discuss strategy, and many plan to attend Tuesday night’s City Council meeting to pressure officials for a solution to the problem. “We’ll be there, and we’re going to make a lot of noise,” said Carol Smith, whose son, a seventh-grader, was among the demonstrators.