Osoyoos mother calls for traffic safety improvements
An Osoyoos mom has taken to social media her quest for a safer walk to and from the local playground for neighbourhood children.
Michelle Fritz, who has two daughters attending Osoyoos Elementary School, started an online petition over the weekend seeking support for improved playground zone signage on 89th Street — located west of the school.
The street is lined by three separate playgrounds, she says, but the speed zone is often thought to be a school zone by motorists passing through it.
“Many people are confused between the playground zone and school zone and what the time limits are for each,” she writes in her Change.org petition.
Fritz is asking the town to provide improved playground signage that makes it clear the speed limit is in place from dawn to dusk seven days a week and not just between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on school days.
She is also asking people to support a call for “signage to indicate no passing and as well as a flashing light that works by solar power to illuminate during set hours at both ends of the zone.”
About 200 other parents in the community have already signed the petition.
“We have a townhouse here,” Fritz explained. “Over and over and over again, I see people speeding past, especially on the weekend, because they think it’s just a school zone.
“They come down the hill, don’t use their brakes and gather speed by the time they reach the park.”
Fritz has complained to the town in the past about the speeding, but it all came to a head when a vehicle almost ran over the family cat.
“My children watched that. She actually tumbled three times, but must have missed the wheels,” Fritz said. “She disappeared out the other side and my husband went looking for her for about an hour before he found her.”
She wonders what might have happened if a child had chased the cat into the street.
Warning and regulatory signage indicating that part of 89th Street is a playground zone was in place, but it was removed at the south end when a construction crew reshaped the street’s intersection with Kingfisher Drive during a water system replacement project.
The signage, said Fritz, has yet to be replaced.
The lone crosswalk on 89th Street anywhere near the elementary school is located at 70th Avenue — a good 200-metre walk from the closest of the three playgrounds. Many children, Fritz contends, prefer to jaywalk across the road.
“I’m not a specialist in road safety, but I feel there needs to be a crosswalk somewhere in the middle. The kids jaywalk across that street every day.”
Sgt. Jason Bayda, who commands the RCMP’s Osoyoos detachment, agrees.
“We do know there are some people who drive too fast — they’re driving 50 (km/h) in a 30 zone — and we’ve given out lots of tickets,” he said. “And even though a pedestrian has the right-of-way, a lot of times without the signs, without the crosswalk, the vehicles continue going.
“I think a crosswalk certainly can help in that situation.”
Once the petition wraps up, Fritz says she plans to present it to town council.
Barry Romanko, the town’s chief administrative officer, said his staff would be happy to receive the petition once it’s complete.
“If the group has a request for service from the town, we will address their request at that time,” he said.