ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Exploring Safety Options

Yorba Linda city officials and the Fairmont Private School need to come up with a better way of ensuring safety for young children at a dangerous crossing near the school. Three youngsters were seriously injured at dusk there last week when a driver--who told police that she never saw the students--ran into the children crossing Valley View Avenue as they returned from a park.

The crossing lies between existing crosswalks to the north and south on a thoroughfare that neighbors say has become a dangerous speedway. There doesn’t seem to be any question that teachers take special precautions to get groups back and forth safely for play periods, but that clearly isn’t enough.

There is, after all, always a first time, despite the safety record the city says it has, and despite the good luck students at that crossing had previously. Just one incident is one incident too many. A crosswalk, a pedestrian signal or a crossing guard are obvious options.

City officials have said that it would both be unusual and unsafe to install such a crosswalk in the middle of a city block where the youngsters cross to the park. But what good are crosswalks to the north and south of a busy school crossing if the need is at some place in the middle? After what happened last week, what additional provisions could be more unsafe than what now exists?

Moreover, the school needs to review its safety precautions. It does not routinely employ crosswalk guards, but the city does for its public schools. Obviously, the private school can learn something from the public ones.

The recent time change has hastened the arrival of dusk and created late-afternoon danger. But there’s a larger problem--the increasing traffic and pace of life in Orange County in general. There are other pedestrian trouble spots around the county and this accident dramatizes the need for better safety provisions.

In the meantime, if schools cannot provide better assurance of safety, walk the group the long and safe way around.