Letter to the Editor: Crosswalk Safety

I have been wanting to bring up an issue that has been a concern of mine for quite some time. I have a problem with the intersections on the north and south side of the middle school right on Main St. /Hwy 287/385. The cross walks for pedestrians is marked fairly well and does have flashing lights with a reduced speed. But as far as I am concerned this is the most dangerous part of Main Street.

Several times I have been surrounded by trucks and if I had not been a local and knew that these intersections were for the school I would have not seen the cross walks until it was too late. I have seen kids just dart out onto the street like they dare people not to stop. Is it critical that kids can just run sporadically across the highway or can’t they wait until there is a group of them to cross the street. I just don’t want to see anything tragic happen before preventative measures are done.

I know a walkway over the highway is terribly expensive but if it would save a life or more wouldn’t it be worth it? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to at least have either volunteers that are well marked to stop traffic to let pedestrians/groups through? Or would that be too dangerous? If you think that would be too dangerous then you too think there is a problem here. Shouldn’t there be overhead lights? There has to be something better because this is too busy of a street and this is too dangerous for the safety of the kids!

I have always thought that trucks ought to be forced (ticketed if they didn’t) to travel on Main street/Highway 287/385 on the far left lane of each line of traffic unless they turn of course. This would be far less dangerous for downtown.

Brad Semmens
29151 Hwy 287/385
Lamar, Co 81052