Cross at your own risk

SALEM — There was no crossing guard on duty when a car struck 14-year-old Christopher Byrne in the crosswalk outside Collins Middle School.

His father believes the accident, which happened the second day of school, could have been prevented if the busy Highland Avenue crosswalk had been manned, and he is among a group of parents sounding the alarm about pedestrian safety in the city.

"I'm standing here saying that my son was almost killed right here on Highland Ave.," Christopher's dad, Tim Byrne, told the School Committee this week. "When he tells me, while laying on a backboard, 'Hey Dad, I got hit in a crosswalk,' that's unacceptable to me.

School officials have acknowledged there is a shortage of crossing guards this year and say they are working to recruit and hire more of them. They are also reviewing the program to determine whether there are enough crossing guards and if they are deployed in the right places, according to Superintendent William Cameron, who met with police Chief Robert St. Pierre and Lt. Mary Butler yesterday afternoon to discuss the issue.

"We're all very saddened to hear (Christopher Byrne) was hit," Mayor Kim Driscoll, chairwoman of the School Committee, said at Monday's meeting. "... We want to do everything we can to make sure children's safety is a priority, particularly going back and forth from school."

"The road rage and aggression out there is nerve-racking," said Kathleen Hoff, a Hathorne Street resident who walks her 7-year-old daughter, Satya, to and from Saltonstall School every day. "I have feared for my life."

The drivers she sees are often speeding, distracted, drinking coffee and talking on cell phones. She and other parents say drivers have yelled at them, honked, sworn at them and flipped them off.

Yesterday, the Hoffs traversed several busy roadways, including Margin and Mill streets (by Walsh Insurance), Canal Street and then Lafayette Street.

"If I don't make eye contact (with the driver), I don't cross," Hoff said while approaching the Canal Street intersection.

When a driver finally stopped, he shouted something crude from the window of his pickup truck.

On Lafayette Street, in front of Saltonstall School, Amy Lypps (a parent who is volunteering as a crossing guard until someone is hired), walked into the crosswalk with her stop sign raised so the Hoffs could cross. Upon seeing her, a motorist in a blue Volvo station wagon accelerated and veered around her to avoid stopping. Lypps gasped and took note of the license plate.

"It's the most scary thing in the world," she said a few minutes later. "They act like it's a yellow light and run around me. It's a problem all over Salem that people don't stop for pedestrians."

Hoff believes a pedestrian awareness campaign could make everyone safer and says city support is key.

"We need to work seriously with our own community," the mayor said when the issue was raised at the school board meeting. "We need to police ourselves, talk to neighbors and PTO groups.

"We consider ourselves to be a very pedestrian-friendly city," Driscoll said, "but motorists are driving way too fast and way too recklessly."

Hoff has called police and school officials, as well as the City Council. She is also in touch with another group, The North Shore Transportation Management Association, which was formed over the summer and focuses on traffic and traffic-congestion issues in Salem, Beverly, Danvers, Peabody and Lynn, according to its Web site, www.northshoretma.org.

Hoff has suggested posting signs and educating people on how to report dangerous motorists to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

"We can put our heads together, and I'm sure we can find something," Hoff said. "In the broader picture, we're coming upon tourist season, and we need to think about this."

Tim Byrne, whose son was struck in front of Collins, suggested the district use its automated phone message system to place a call to each household when a crossing guard is out or a position is temporarily vacant.

His son, an eighth-grader, broke his hand in the Sept. 4 accident. According to the police report, witnesses said the child darted into the crosswalk so police did not cite the driver. That angers Tim Byrne, who said a crossing guard would have prevented it in the first place.

"The message that sends is, 'Hit a kid, and nothing's going to happen,'" he said.

Parent Stacia Kraft said that as the city continues development projects, pedestrians should factor into the planning.

"I now walk and bike with my children to school," she said. "Don't build anything unless you know we can bike and walk there safely. ... For quality of life, for healthiness, part of living in this tight community is we should be able to walk."

Amid the recent buzz, parents have asked what the police can do to make schoolchildren safer and suggested police officers stand watch at the busiest spots.

"The crossing guards have no enforcement power," Hoff told the School Committee. "People who fly by almost hit them, as well."

According to the police chief, Salem police officers once served as the school crossing guards, but that practice ended in the 1970s, although the police continued to oversee the program until the late 1980s when it was turned over to the schools.

Today, the schools oversee the program and pay for the crossing guard salaries and supplies, and the police have a liaison who provides their safety training.

"We wouldn't let the safety of children be jeopardized," St. Pierre said. "But we are operating so thin right now I really would not be in a position to take that on."

As for the crossing guard shortage, the superintendent said seven out of 34 positions are vacant. The district has continued to run ads, but recruitment is a challenge, he said.

"I've been told there are large discrepancies in what Salem pays crossing guards (compared) to surrounding towns," Cameron said. "That's something I'm investigating. ... I'm not sure at this point about what makes it unattractive to people."

Salem crossing guards are paid $11 per hour and work two hours a day — one hour in the morning, and again in the afternoon.

Cameron said he also wants to consider a contingency system when crossing guards are out sick or if positions are vacant, as they have been so far this school year. He said he will meet next week with the police traffic control specialist to review the areas currently designated for crossing guard coverage.

"I don't know if we should redeploy certain people because certain intersections are busier," Cameron said. "... Chief St. Pierre and Lt. Butler were very helpful and very positive about working with us to alleviate this problem."

Parent Denise L'Heureux became a crossing guard last year and manages the crosswalk behind Saltonstall every morning and afternoon. She enjoys the social nature of the job and the $400 in extra cash each month.

But she still contends with reckless drivers — and said she even had to place her hand on the hood of a man's car to stop him while she was trying to cross some children.

"I'm very polite, I kill 'em with kindness," said L'Heureux, who has two children at Saltonstall. "The thing is you just have to make sure everyone gets into school in one piece."

Photos

Amy Lypps, a crossing guard volunteer, watches as a car blows through the crosswalk yesterday while Kathleen Hoff and her daughter, Satya, 7, try crossing in front of Saltonstall School in Salem. Staff Photographer