On April 21, 2023, two students were heading from Long River Middle School towards Dunkin Donuts, crossing Route 68 and 69. Mitchell Casella and John Dravis were just planning on getting lemon loaves, frozen hot chocolates, and jelly donuts when their day almost ended in tragedy.
Casella and Dravis waited at the curb until the walk signal came on. They were crossing safely in the crosswalk when Casella heard something from the distance.
“I heard someone screaming,” Casella said. “It was another girl who was also walking to Dunkin, and, all of a sudden, I saw a tractor trailer moving towards us and almost ran me over.”
Meanwhile, Dravis did not hear the scream, though he did see the tractor trailer coming towards them.
“The truck came out of nowhere. I don’t know, it just kinda spawned,” Dravis said. “It was there, and I just ran. Luckily, no one got hurt, but someone could have and that’s kind of scary.”
Once the truck had stopped, Dravis and Casella both realized that the truck driver was seemingly angry with both of them for walking there.
Later in the day, Derek Muharem, the Principal of Long River Middle School, made a post on Facebook about the event. In the post, he talked about how a truck almost ran over some students from Long River. He said that the truck had a green light, and the kids were crossing incorrectly. Dravis, Casella, and a witness had stated that the cross signal was on at this time, and that they were allowed to cross.
This post sparked a lot of comments from parents. These parents were concerned, and for good reason. About fifty to sixty students from Long River Middle School cross the intersection every day.
Most of the parents were talking about how unsafe this intersection is for kids to be crossing or advocating the need for a crossing guard to be in the area. A traffic guard at this intersection would help lower the chance of an event like this happening again.
Upon further investigation, it is clear that there are times when the cross signal is on at the same time as drivers coming from Naugatuck have a green light.
One Prospect resident, RoseMary Ruocco-Cyr, posted on Facebook’s Region 16 Parents Community page, “That intersection is not safe for these kids to cross- cars come flying from 68 onto 69 while kids are crossing. I have seen the walk sign on however [,] the cars from 68 can still take a left onto 69.”
A green light is on, at the intersection of Route 68 and 69, while the crosswalk shows it is safe to walk. This demonstrates that pedestrians appropriately crossing at the crosswalk while the walk signal is lit are at risk of being hit by drivers legally turning left on a green light. Photo by Jennifer Dravis
One of the reasons that this issue is so dangerous is because drivers who are coming from Naugatuck do not know about the glitch.
“He was like ‘what the heck, kids’, and I started pointing out at the crosswalk sign,” Dravis stated, “and he was looking at me like I had three heads.”
Since the driver seemed to be confused, he must have thought that the kids were crossing illegally, when really they were not.
This issue with the lights is known to the Town Hall. They have known about this problem for a few weeks, maybe longer.
“I have even gone out there myself and jumped out in front of cars to stop them,” Robert Chatfield, mayor of Prospect, said.
Although the members of City Hall are aware of this, they are referring to it as a glitch that they are attempting to stop. They also are blaming it on drivers coming from Naugatuck on Route 68.
“People are not paying attention to the sign that says yield to user of crosswalks,” Mayor Chatfield said. “There’s a white hand that goes on, the kids cross and people come around.”
In this, he blamed the drivers for the problems caused. Mayor Chatfield also mentioned how he never plans to have a crossing guard stationed at this intersection.
“There was no crossing [guard], the lights were not designed for that,” Mayor Chatfield said. “The lights were supposed to take care of that and not have a need for a crossing guard.”
Even though it was not designed for a crossing guard, it can be arranged by the way that the cross signals are designed. The cross signal lights are designed to have a switch. This switch will make it so the light will flash. This flashing light is there so that a crossing guard could be there with the lights.
Another issue that Mayor Chatfield said was the funding for the crossing guard. Even though the funding is an issue, Naugatuck, at the moment, has crossing guards. These crossing guards get paid minimum wage, or fifteen dollars an hour, as well as working for about two hours every day. That means for a crossing guard to be stationed outside of Long River, who gets paid minimum wage, that person would get paid five thousand and four hundred dollars a year. This funding could be obtained through taxes, raising it by fifty-six cents on average.
Mayor Chatfield is talking with the Department of Transportation and the Prospect Police Department to attempt to get this matter fixed. Though this is being discussed, there might not be a crossing guard that is placed at this intersection.
According to what Mayor Chatfield had said, since the start of Spring, there has been an increase to the rates of which vehicles are traveling at. The town has taken other measures to keep people safe. This includes telling the town to slow down when driving, though did not mention a crossing guard.
On Monday, April 24, Dravis’ family went back to the intersection, where they noticed this problem was still not fixed. There was no crossing guard, even though parents advocated for one to be placed there. The lights and cross signal timing were not fixed.
A group of Long River Middle School students cross the street on May ninth while Mayor Chatfield directs traffic at the intersection between Route 68 and 69. This helps the students stay safe while the cars are about to come at them with a green light. This was the second day where Mayor Chatfield was making sure that kids were not going to be run over at this intersection. Photo by Dravis
In the month of May, Mayor Chatfield has started coming to this intersection to make sure that the kids were able to cross the street safely. While this is helping the students right now, this could not be an on-going event. This intersection needs to have a crossing guard, who will make sure that these students will always be safe. These students are risking their lives to cross this street, just to get something from Dunkin Donuts or go to Hotchkiss Park. This issue needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
