Mother of Deaf Girl Fights City for Traffic Sign

A parent has squared off against the city in a battle for a sign warning motorists that her deaf daughter might be playing nearby.

Fearing that 6-year-old Hayley could be hit by a car she cannot hear, Mary Mapa asked the city to post a traffic sign near her Marco Drive home alerting fast-moving drivers to slow down.

But in a letter to Mapa last month, city transportation engineer Tom Fox denied her request, stating that specialty warning signs do little to stop speeding motorists, are “generally not a good practice” and may cause “a proliferation of ineffective warning signs.”

Officials further said the sign might give residents a false sense that the road had become safer and decrease their feeling that they need to be cautious.

“There is no intent on my part to have a sign replace my responsibility as a parent, or to not teach my child responsibility,” Mapa wrote to city officials in response. “I am discussing a child with a major disability--profound hearing loss--on whom a loud horn will have no effect.”

After receiving a call from Mapa in April, the city conducted a two-day speed survey and found that the average speed was 25 to 29 mph, which was typical, Fox said, for a residential street.

“The best solution is for you to continue exercising caution when your child plays near the street,” Fox wrote.

But Sherri Kowertz, who ultimately won a battle for a similar sign in Fountain Valley, said the warning is not intended to lift responsibility from parents but to bolster the vigilant care a deaf child already receives.

“The point is you want people to go slower and be aware, but that doesn’t mean on our side we are shirking our responsibility,” she said. Kowertz said the sign--”Deaf Children Near”--was installed in January 1997 and cost the city less than $50.

Mapa said she would present a petition signed by neighbors supporting her request to the City Council.