6 THE COURIER SUN • MAY 15, 2014 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com Signs of life: Howard Beach seventh-graders make their own traffi c safety signs BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ Students at P.S. 232 Walter Ward School have fi rst-hand experience with the dangers of traffi c and speeding cars. The Howard Beach school is located across the street from a shopping center, and the everyday task of crossing the streets is always tinged with danger, according to students, parents and faculty members at the school. In response to the constant speeding that they see daily, students from a seventh-grade class designed their own traffi c sign as part of a wider Department of Transportation project for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” policy. The signs went up on two locations today around the school. “It’s so dangerous,” Rosemarie Asselta, a parent, said about the intersection of 153rd Avenue and 83rd Street. “They’re rushing past the school in a hurry and zooming into the shopping center parking lot. It’s terrifying.” Asselta explained that the problem isn’t that drivers in the area are particularly careless. But between 84th and 79th streets on 153rd Avenue there is no stop sign or red light. Add to this the fact that the crossing guard can’t control traffi c on the high-speed avenue, and you get an area where “close calls” happen all the time, Asselta said. The traffi c sign designed by the seventh-grade class was put up on the avenue itself as well as on 83rd Street, advising students that “ready and alert wins the race.” The sign depicts a green human fi gure crossing the street as a yellow car reaches the crosswalk and, presumably, slows down. Jamee Lopez is one of the seventh-graders who helped design the traffi c sign and for her, traffi c incidents take a personal note. Last year she was crossing the avenue when she was almost hit by a car. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ And it made me realize how dangerous this area really is,” Jamee said. “Because in this school you always hear stories about kids almost getting hit but then when it happens to you, it becomes really serious.” Jamee and her fellow classmates worked on the design process since the beginning of the school year in September 2013. During that time, they collaborated with one another on a design and visited the DOT’s sign shop in Maspeth, according to Theresa Bary, a DOT representative. “They see it from start to fi nish,” said Bary, the department’s deputy director of safety education outreach. “They really take this to heart.” THE COURIER/Photo by Eric Jankiewicz Lisa Josephson, principal of I.S. 232 in Howard Beach, holds up a traffi c sign created by her students in response to speeding cars outside the school. REGENTS EXAMS BEGIN JUNE 3 passtheregents.com or call 718-644-1829 ● NYS Licensed Instructors ● All Major Subjects ● Limited Class Sizes ● $160 per subject ● Intensive 6-hour review sessions Course location: Queens College* Course enrollment is limited - reserve your spot today. *not a function of Queens College Total average savings of Let me show you how combining home and auto policies can really add up. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.® CALL FOR A QUOTE 24/7 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm Indemnity Company, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, State Farm General Insurance Company, Bloomington, IL 0907501 Car + Home Savings Donald A Enga, Agent 216-18 Jamaica Ave 2nd Floor Queens Village, NY 11428 Bus: 718-468-6500 [email protected] $696* *Average annual household savings based on national 2009 survey of new policyholders who reported savings by switching to State Farm.
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