A fatal accident involving a 30-year-old Countryside woman struck by a passing vehicle as she attempted to hoist her child's stroller onto a raised curb at 47th Street and 8th Avenue in La Grange May 19 underscores the need for a comprehensive traffic and pedestrian study NOW in all area communities.
However, kudos are in order for Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn for calling a special meeting June 2 to talk to the neighborhood about safety concerns aloing 47th Street and for asking the state to not only reduce speed on the roadway throughout town but to also turn over the street to the village so it can reduce the number of lanes, adding lots more parkway, turn lanes and, we can only hope, a safer commute and pedestrian atmosphere to boot.
Not only is the nearby intersection of 47th and East/Eberly Avenue another example of a potential fatality just waiting to happen, but so, too, are many intersections like the one where Cari Cook was killed -- and that is in a residential neighborhood.
The conundrum over 47th and East/Eberly is an issue often bandied about as a "what to do" scenario, but nothing is ever advanced to improve either vehicular or pedestrian traffic through the quasi- industrial/recreational crossing bounded on two corners by La Grange and the other two corners by McCook and Brookfield.
Rather than waiting for state or federal dollars to magically come streaming into local villages, the town leaders must sit down with their own department heads and residents -- as well as with their municipal neighbors -- and put safety first.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that many of the area sidewalks do not match up on either side of an intersection, that is where there are sidewalks.
And speaking as a disabled person who lately has been trying to master La Grange, Brookfield and Countryside streets, sidewalks and intersections often on crutches or via wheelchair, the task of getting around is a challenge to put it lightly.
In many areas, people who are disabled, pushing strollers or pulling wagons often find the supposed ADA-quality curb cuts to be anything but even.
And in the case of downtown La Grange, the mere task of visiting a store or restaurant located anywhere but the end of a block requires drivers to park in the middle of the block and pass behind sometimes a dozen other vehicles before being able to use a corner crosswalk to get onto the sidewalk.
As a result, curb cuts should not just be installed in the middle of downtown blocks, where convenient handicapped and "pregnant mom" spaces should also be available (like they are in the middle of the parking lot outside, say, JoAnn Fabrics in Countryside Plaza), but they should be routinely checked for settling and safety more frequently than they are.
The issue with Cari Cook may have something to do with speed or the indubitable rush motorists feel to beat the freight train congestion at 47th and East/Eberly, but then again it could be just a freak accident.
But it is clear it could have been avoided had the young mother not had to LIFT her baby's stroller onto the curb.
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3 comments:
As a good friend of Cari Cook, it angers me that this may have been prevented. I know that budgets are tight these days, but her life was priceless. It's just sad that it takes a life to justify it.
I also feel compassion for handicapped citizens where these simple things could make their life safer and easier.
My heart goes out to the family. I have tried crossing 47th at that same intersection and it's a very dangerous cross. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented had the Village of LaGrange provided safe and adequate sidewalks to those walking throughout it's town. Sidewalks north of 47th direct walkers across 47th with no accepting sidewalk on the other south side leaving them stranded in the busy street. My family lives 2 blocks from where this awful accident occured and we do not have sidewalks on my street to provide a safe route for my 2 young children to walk to school or to a park. We are forced to walk on the street with the passing cars. This is unacceptable. If the Village of LaGrange can give $1,000,000.00 to the owners of the movie theater to spruce it up, one would hope it can foot the bill to provide safe and adequate sidewalks to allow for people to walk to schools and parks. One would hope that the safety of the community would be a higher priority than giving a million dollars to help renovate a movie theater.
A walk with your two small kids, on a beautiful spring day should not have a chance of ending like this did. Let us all take Cari's life as a lesson to us a pedestrians and drivers. Slow down!
The village of LaGrange needs to take this terrible tragedy as a lesson on pedestrian safety in its village. In addition to this residential corridor, there are so many areas around the downtown section, especially the LaGrange/ Ogden corner, north of where this accident happened. Someone is going to lose their life in that mess that is only going to be worse when the YMCA property is overdeveloped, as is planned. Do we need to lose another Cari for the village to take action to protect it's pedestrians?
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