Staten Island Injury Law : New York Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Frank Dito : Decker, Decker, Dito & Internicola Law Firm : Traffic Accidents, Transportation Safety

As school bus service to nearly 3,000 7th and 8th graders remains cut, principals are scrambling to find ways to make dismissal safer. As anyone knows who drives on Staten Island streets during the hours of 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., getting around is difficult, especially near schools at their dismissal times. A trip that averages 15 minutes during the late morning may take as long as 45 minutes during the mid-afternoon. The streets in front of many Staten Island schools are filled with double- and triple-parked cars, have cars parked in someone else's driveway, blocked fire hydrants and a general failure to heed stop signs and red lights.

Bernstein Intermediate School recognized the danger that children were carelessly crossing Hylan Boulevard, a street rapidly becoming known as Staten Island's "Boulevard of Death", and took immediate steps to correct it. The school's principal met with students and even arranged for dismissal of the 7th and 8th graders in the school yard, making it easier for parents to pick up their children. This is just one school out of many in Staten Island and much more needs to be done to ensure our children's safety.

Last year, police put in place a plan that built upon "Operation Safe Roadways", which was put in place to stem the reckless driving along Hylan Boulevard and Richmond Avenue. The plan targeted driver behavior around schools during the morning drop-off and afternoon pickup. Again, driver attitude on Staten Island is a major problem in preventing . Parents need to pay attention to the rules and guidelines that schools implement for parking and student safety. Without our cooperation, the chaos will remain, putting all our children at risk.

Since it seems that everyone on Staten Island drives their child to and from school, I am at a loss to understand why Stop-and-Drop hasn't been adopted at every school. Stop-and-Drop designates one curb as a drop off zone, manned by a parent or teacher. A parent pulls up, with their child seated on the right hand side of the car, and their child is let out of the car, into the care of the parent or teacher. The parent then pulls away, letting the supervisors direct the children into the school, and allowing another parent to pull up. If followed, it greatly reduces the chaos and ensures that our children get to school safely. We also need our elected officials to look into changing the many "No Parking' and "No Standing" signs that surround our schools. I am sure at one time, these signs benefited all. But now, with the Island bursting at the seams, these spots should be opened up to allow parents to park and pick up their children safely.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

It looks like the Verrazano Bridge isn't the only bridge that presents a danger to Staten Island commuters. Newly released data from the Port Authority shows that a whopping 2,400 accidents, or 55% of the Port Authority total, happened last year on the Goethals Bridge. Many of the accidents were rear end collisions and sideswipes, caused by the bridge's narrow lanes and the lack of a shoulder.

The lanes on the Goethals Bridge are only 10 foot wide, compared to 12 foot wide on newer bridges. In fact, AAA voted the Goethals Bridge as the 3rd worst bridge in New York because of the narrow lanes and the presence of deep grooves in the pavement from the heavy car and tuck traffic that the bridge experiences. With a replacement years, possibly a decade, away, the Port Authority is scrambling to find a temporary fix.

Recently, the lines on the bridge were repainted from dashed to solid, which prohibits lane-changing, in an effort to reduce sideswipe accidents. However, it seems that the change has not brought about any reduction in the amount of accidents that happen on the span. Besides the new solid lines and an eventual resurfacing of the roadway, the only real fix is the construction of a new span, with 3 wide lanes that will enable traffic to move safely across. Until the time that a new bridge can be built, drivers need to take care when driving across the bridge. Don't switch lanes unless its an emergency and take care to leave enough space between you and the car in front of you so that you can safely stop in an emergency. Be prepared when driving over the bridge because for the next 5 to10 years, we are the only ones that can protect ourselves from this dangerous bridge design.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

A morning commute to the City for those who reside on the West shore of Staten Island usually takes them over Hylan Boulevard on their way to the Staten Island Expressway. In the morning, the route is choked and significantly delays commuters. When the route is not clogged, it turns into Staten Island’s own South Shore arterial highway. In certain stretches, especially in areas across from parks, cars and SUV’s easily pass you at speeds that make you feel like you are standing still, although you are driving at 40 miles per hour. And the people that pass you shoot an angry glance as if to say, “Get out of my way – why are you driving so slow?” This general attitude permeates to many driver’s on Staten Island.

No more so is the attitude more readily apparent than in the unfortunate and tragic death of a 17-year old Tottenville High School student, Janine Brawer. Ms. Brawer simply wanted to cross the street and another student was kind enough to show common courtesy, stopping their car to let her cross in front. What happened next robbed a young girl of her life – its apparent that a second car, either speeding or distracted, crashed into the back of the stopped car, pushing that car over Ms. Brawer. Local forums are filled with comments about the police department and how they should stop writing frivolous tickets for crimes such as speeding, failing to wear seat belts and cell phone use, the so-called quality of life crimes.

I say that the police don’t pursue these crimes enough as people seems not to care about the consequences, except when a tragedy like the loss of Ms. Brawer’s life occurs at too young of an age. My thoughts and prayers are with the Brawer family. As a father of two, I cannot imagine the unnecessary pain that the family is going through.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link