Traffic ‘hot spots’ a growing concern around valley schools

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

Fed up with watching students try to safely navigate their way across a busy Green Valley intersection, several parents have deputized themselves as crossing guards.

Moana Fisher, whose daughter is a sixth grader at Bob Miller Middle School, volunteers her time each school day and escorts students across the bustling intersection of Cozy Hill Circle and Carnegie Street. In addition to parents dropping their children off at school, the morning traffic includes area residents trying to exit a gated community and motorists seeking shortcuts.

"It's a mess out here," said Fisher, who has used her video camera to capture traffic violations in progress. "I've watched cars go right through the intersections even when there are kids in the crosswalks. It's a tragedy waiting to happen."

It's also a scene that has played out at dozens of schools throughout the Las Vegas Valley, said Erin Breen, director of the Safe Community Partnership. When asked to provide a list of Clark County traffic "hot spots" around schools, Breen laughed.

"Every single school would consider themselves on that list," Breen said. "It's a constant problem and requires constant vigilance."

As part of International Walk to School Week, Breen and other traffic safety advocates were slated to be at Piggot Elementary School on Red Hills Road -- southeast of Hualapai and Charleston -- this morning, with Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Wolfson serving as a student escort. The message is as much about teaching motorists how to behave around schools as it is showing students the proper way to cross a street, Breen said.

Many of the worst offenders are parents, Breen said.

"People are concerned about getting their children to school safely but aren't that concerned about your children," Breen said. "That's why when we have schools with proactive, involved parents we have better success solving traffic problems."

Since Jan. 1, 31 pedestrians have died after being hit by cars and another 231 pedestrians were taken to UMC's Trauma Center for treatment, Breen said. Nevada has one of the nation's highest rates of pedestrian injuries and fatalities in motor vehicle-related collisions, Breen said.

There were several close calls Monday on the busy streets surrounding Miller. Just after 7:30 a.m. a shiny, gun-metal gray Hummer H2 came to an abrupt stop halfway through a crosswalk on Cozy Hill, forcing students to walk around the vehicle in order to reach the other side of the street. And at 2:20 p.m. three boys carrying skateboards dodged oncoming cars as they ran across Paseo Verde.

Jacob Miramontes, a sixth grader at Miller, said in recent weeks he's noticed cars have been driving more slowly around the school.

"It think it's because there's been a lot more cops around," Jacob said. "Every other day I've seen them out writing tickets."

Officer Todd Rasmusson, a Henderson Police Department spokesman, confirmed that officers have stepped up patrols around the campus.

"There have been a number of complaints and in response we've increased enforcement," Rasmusson said.

The school district has no jurisdiction over crossing guards, who are employed by police departments. They are assigned only to elementary schools and paid for with city or county funds.

In the past public agencies have typically discouraged parents from directing traffic around schools saying it can give students a false sense of security and confuse motorists.

Tam Larnerd, principal of Miller, said he wants to give Fisher and other parent volunteers official crossing guard status.

"We've offered to pick up the cost of the vests and get them some hand-held stop signs," Larnerd said.

School officials are first checking with the district to make sure there are no liability issues, Larnerd said.

It's not just the intersection that's a matter of concern. Residents of two gated communities near the school have complained that parents who don't live there are cutting through their enclaves to pick up and drop off their children, eager to avoid the logjam are cutting through their enclaves as shortcuts.

Madeline Vonderlinden, who lives in the gated Summit Point development and whose grandson attends Miller, said some parents linger outside the gate before following a resident's vehicle into the complex. The parents then instruct their children to follow someone who lives inside the complex through a locked pedestrian gate.

"It's creative, I suppose, but it's not safe to have those cars zooming up and down our streets," Vonderlinden said. "And frankly, it's a little annoying."

Larnerd said at the school's recent open house he reminded parents not to double-park in front of community gates or use private driveways to make U-turns after picking up or dropping off students.

"We always encourage our families to help our school be a good neighbor," Larnerd said.

Michael Stevenson tries to arrive at least 30 minutes before the dismissal bell to stake out a "good spot" to pick up his daughter at Miller.

"I try and get the same place every day or she'll never find me," Stevenson said.

It's "ridiculous" that the school district can't provide crossing guards for its middle schools, Stevenson said.

"This is a high-end school -- look at the cars all over here," Stevenson said, pointing up and down Carnegie. "A lady almost ran over a girl on a bike last week -- if there were crossing guards it would eliminate a lot of the crazy driving."

Metro Police Sgt. Rob Lundquist said steep fines for breaking traffic laws in school zones have made an impact. Speeding in a school zone will earn a motorist a ticket of at least $380. And in a school zone it's a $190 fine for motorists who fail to wait at a crosswalk until the pedestrian has not only cleared the front of the vehicle but made it to the opposite side of the street, Lundquist said.

It's also helpful that the courts have become more strict about enforcing the citations and fines, Lundquist said.

"You might be an offender but you're not going to be a repeat offender unless you can really afford it," Lundquist said.

At Priest Elementary School in North Las Vegas, Principal Linda Griffith has scheduled a slate of classroom activities around Walk to School Week. Last year Jade Kilmer, a fifth grader at Priest, was run over by a tractor-trailer when he slipped while in-line skating home from school.

"Kids still talk about him, the teachers still talk about him," Griffith said. "It's part of Jade's legacy that we take traffic safety so seriously here."