Date: Fri 23-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-crosswalks-traffic

Full Text:

ED INK: The Little Crime That Kills

When Will Toll stepped out into Main Street last Thursday night after a

meeting of a computer interest group he headed at Edmond Town Hall, Newtown's

police were already mounting a public campaign to make street crossings in the

center of town safer.

Police Chief James Lysaght, Jr, had issued a warning and a statement just the

week before, saying that extra efforts would be taken to enforce the

motorist's obligation to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks and the

pedestrian's obligation to use them. The chief's concern was sparked when a

young girl was struck and injured by a car on Queen Street and by a similar

accident involving a pedestrian on Church Hill Road earlier in the year.

The warning and the extra enforcement by the police, however, didn't stop the

Cadillac that struck Will Toll in front of the town hall, and when he died the

following morning it became clear that even the best intentions and resolve of

the police department aren't going eliminate the deadly hazards in the center

of town where pedestrians and traffic most often meet.

The idea of putting signs at the cross walks in the borough, reminding

motorists that they must stop when someone is in the crosswalk, has been

floated before. The proposal has been dismissed, however, over aesthetic

concerns. The signs and the brightly colored barriers that would support them

would be ugly and inappropriate for the town's historic center, it was argued.

Even though other towns with historic centers have erected such signs,

including Ridgefield, New Milford, Washington Depot and even toney Litchfield,

the signs have yet to make an appearance in Newtown because it was thought

they would offend our sensibilities in some way.

What really, offends us, however, is that Will Toll is now gone, and others

have been hurt through lack of attention and carelessness in the streets of

our town. Disobeying the crosswalk rules may seem like a little infraction,

especially to those in a hurry, but we have to remember that it is one of the

few crimes committed in our town that actually kills people. If signs will

help remind motorists of the serious hazards for pedestrians in the street, so

be it. Put them up.