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EAGLE MOUNTAIN — Some parents of elementary students in Eagle Mountain are taking their concerns about crosswalk safety straight to City Hall. The parents say they are hoping to get some answers and some help for a certain crosswalk that they believe is an accident waiting to happen.
The crosswalk in question is located near Mountain Trails Elementary School. While it is mainly busy when parents are picking up or dropping off their students, some parents are too afraid of the traffic to let their younger children walk alone.
"We're pretty quiet unless it is school hours, but they will get going pretty fast," said parent Natalie Devey. She says that they live close enough for her kids to walk to school, but she is concerned about their safety with the traffic.
Devey and other parents have taken their concerns to city officials, about the crossing and lack of a sidewalk through the neighborhood, but haven't liked the response they say they've been getting.
"The most consistent response we've got is that only eight kids are using this trail so it's not worth the money for eight kids," Devey said.
But yesterday, one of those eight kids was hit by a car in the crosswalk.
"A person came and hit her back tire and she flipped over her bike and luckily she was wearing her helmet," said Corie St. Clair, the concerned mother of the child in the accident.
This road is not wide enough to accommodate kids and cars and people don't pay attention to the crosswalk. They drive too fast and they don't yield to pedestrians.
–Janis Bradford, parent
It was the last straw for these parents who fear that next time a child, maybe one of their own, will be seriously hurt or killed.
"This road is not wide enough to accommodate kids and cars and people don't pay attention to the crosswalk," said Janis Bradford, another concerned parent in Eagle Mountain. "They drive too fast and they don't yield to pedestrians."
City officials say they are also concerned about the crossing, but already have three crossing guards deployed at much busier crosswalks.
"We have put the guards that we have at the areas that have the highest need and it would be nice to have a guard at every corner, but we don't have the resources for that so we have tried to place them where we feel they will be most effective," said Linda Peterson, the spokesperson for Eagle Mountain.
On Friday, the parents held a face-to-face meeting with the mayor and city engineer and when they left city hall, they were optimistic that safety will improve.
"They are going to work on getting us a crossing guard," said Shelly Anderson, one of the parents in the meeting. "They are going to finish the sidewalk and put in a new crosswalk and flags for the kids to carry so I think they are working on it. I think now the concern is people who are driving poorly and I don't know how that is ever solved."
