Villa Park : Long Fight for Traffic Signal Ends in Victory

A long fight for a stoplight at a dangerous street intersection near two public schools concludes this morning when a newly installed traffic signal will be activated.

The stoplight will go into operation at 10 a.m. at the corner of Taft and Nichols avenues. That intersection was the scene of two fatal accidents last December and January. Parents and teachers said Tuesday that it was only the tragedy of those two deaths that finally prodded the City Council into action.

“We’ve been working for years for this stoplight,” said Judy Beyl of Orange, founder of Panic (Parents Alarmed about the Nichols-Taft Intersection Crosswalk). Beyl said that Panic was formed in March, 1984 but that parents had been seeking a stoplight at the intersection for years before that.

“I think it was the death of the two junior high school students that finally brought about the action,” she said. She referred to the death of Mitchell Soper, 12, in January and Jeff Dagley, 13, in December. Both were students at nearby Cerro Villa Junior High, and both were killed while crossing the Nichols-Taft intersection.

Richard Kirwan, principal of Villa Park High School, said he is “very pleased” that the city had installed the stoplight, noting that his school is in front of the intersection.

“In addition to the two deaths, there have been 10 other youngsters injured at that intersection in previous years,” Kirwan said.