Slow down! Grandmother finds traffic moving near school way too fast

LACONIA — Drivers going too fast for the conditions is a complaint many pedestrians have made. Alicia St. John, though, is trying to do something about it.

St. John, a resident of High Street, walks her energetic grandson Zackery to and from Woodland Heights Elementary School every day and said she's become shocked at the way many drivers travel along High Street and especially Winter Street Extension, the dead-end road that leads to and from the school. The area is densely settled, the streets are narrow and there's much activity to visual distract a driver, especially before and after school, when the sidewalks are carrying students and the intersections are busy with vehicles.

Too often, St. John said, the drivers' rate of speed seems too fast for them to be able to stop abruptly for someone in a crosswalk. "You cross that street and you think, am I going to get whacked off here?" So far this year, she said she's had two "close calls" crossing the street with Zackery.

That's enough for her, as they now avoid Winter Street Extension and walk along a popular path through a wooded area to get to school. That's her short-term solution but she's simultaneously trying to see what can be done to change the culture of speeding around the school.

Earlier this year, after bringing her concern to a police officer, a mobile radar sign, which reads and displays drivers' speeds, was briefly positioned on Winter Street Extension. It didn't have any effect, reported St. John, who saw one woman nearly double the 20 mile per hour school zone limit and didn't slow even when her speed was displayed.

Dennis Dobe, Woodland Height's new principal, said the school works to educate drivers dropping off or picking up students about the "rules of school" while on school grounds, but hasn't personally seen what traffic is like nearby. "I'm not sure what the extent of the risk or danger is," he said, noting that he hadn't heard of a problem before St. John contacted him.

The situation is well known to Cori Smith, who is employed by the police department and has worked as a crossing near Woodland Heights for four years. Even with many stop signs in the area, drivers quickly get up to speed along Highland and Winter Street; often they have to brake hard when Smith raises her stop sign. "Everybody's in a hurry. I know they're probably people trying to get to their job," she said. I just wish everyone would slow down."

Smith is made nervous by the situation, especially because many of the students walk along the edges of the sidewalk and can behave unpredictably. "Sometimes, they dart out and they don't look," she said.

The speed limit on Winter Street Extension is 30 miles per hour, or 20 when the school zone lights are flashing, said Police Chief Mike Moyer. Like Dobe, Moyer hadn't heard of a recent problem until contacted by St. John, although Moyer said it has been a problem in years past.

Then, Moyer said, the solution was increased enforcement and education, and if he determines it's needed he said the same remedy would likely be applied this time. Before he assigns an officer there, though, he plans to install what he called a "stealth stat box," an inconspicuous device that would read and record information about traffic along a given street. The device doesn't record registration numbers but does log a wealth of other information such as speeds, times of day and which direction the vehicles are traveling in when they're speeding.

"The first thing I want to see is the data," said Moyer, adding that the stat box will be placed in the area sometime in the near future. If its recordings substantiate St. John's concerns, then he'll develop a strategy to address the problem.

So far, said St. John, her effort has been a "solo thing," but she's hoping her concern will inspire others to join her, either to participate in a forum or perhaps to join a committee to come up with solutions. She's hoping to convince parents to "leave a little bit earlier, take your time getting to where you're going – I just want them to get to the school and get out of the school safely."

CAPTION for CROSS WALK in AA:

With help from crossing guard Cori Smith, Alicia St. John walks her grandson Zackery home from first grade at Woodland Heights Elementary School. St. John said traffic moves too quickly in the area of the school and has set out on a one-woman crusade to address the concern. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)