Getting Answers : Can’t We Protect Kids From Traffic?

Our 4-year-old son, Zachary, attends Frances Blend School for the Visually Impaired in Hollywood.

Each day many students and families and staff become targets for drivers racing up Van Ness Avenue to beat the rush hour and lunch hour.

Several times we have petitioned elected officials and the traffic department to install a four-way stop at the intersection of Clinton Street and Van Ness. Each time we are told that the relatively light traffic does not warrant a sign.

The problem is compounded by the large number of children attending Van Ness Elementary School, which is adjacent to Frances Blend. For the record, there has already been one serious accident involving a vehicle and a Van Ness student.

Transportation officials claim that adequate safeguards already exist. They note that blind children do not walk the streets alone, and Van Ness schoolchildren may use an underground crossing tunnel built for their safety.

Blind children may not cross the streets alone, but many of the Van Ness children certainly do.

School buses parked along Van Ness limit visibility, and farther along the street one often encounters large trucks serving the film industry.

As for the tunnel under Van Ness, many parents and staff members consider it unsavory, unsafe and impractical.

Virtually all of the potential dangers discussed would be lessened by a four-way stop sign.