The No. 1 priority of government should be to protect the safety and the welfare of the public it serves.
However, when it comes to the issue of getting Ridgecrest Elementary School children across Ulmerton Road, government seems to have other concerns:
Money. Precedent. Rules. Process. Way, way down the list - if it is even on the list at all - is the safety of these children.
Twice every school day, children between ages 5 and 11 cross Ulmerton Road by themselves to get to and from Ridgecrest Elementary School near Largo. They use the crosswalk located at the intersection of 119th Street, a side street laden with school traffic in the morning and afternoon, and Ulmerton Road, which has five lanes of hellacious high-speed traffic at virtually any time of day.
Throughout Pinellas County, school and law enforcement officials have mapped the routes children walk to get to and from school, and they have placed adult crossing guards in the places considered too dangerous for children to cross alone. The busiest crossings even have two crossing guards to provide a double layer of protection.
So why do Ridgecrest Elementary children have to cross Ulmerton by themselves?
Because school and law enforcement officials decided the crossing was too dangerous to place a crossing guard there!
Four years ago parents and concerned community members pleaded with the school district to do something to make the crossing safer for youngsters who live south of Ulmerton Road and attend Ridgecrest Elementary north of Ulmerton.
The answer they received was that the 119th Street/Ulmerton Road crossing was too dangerous for anyone - students or crossing guards - and that instead, children should use the Pinellas Trail overpass to the east to cross over Ulmerton Road. So students whose most direct path between home and school was straight across Ulmerton Road at 119th Street were told they should walk a long five blocks east to the overpass, then five blocks back to 119th Street, twice a day.
It should surprise no one that four years later children still are crossing Ulmerton Road at 119th Street by themselves. Now parents have heard the state is preparing to add two more lanes to Ulmerton Road, and they are again pleading for a crossing guard or some other solution. Again, they are being told that children should use the Pinellas Trail overpass.
Government officials can wag their fingers and say what children ought to do, but the reality is that children will continue to cross Ulmerton Road at the 119th Street intersection because it is the most direct route and because they are too young to make a wiser decision. That school and local government officials ignore that reality is an abandonment of their responsibility to protect the public.
With their request for a crossing guard shot down, parents have suggested that the school district use a bus or van to carry these children to and from their homes. The school district pointed to the rule against busing children who live within 2 miles of a school and added that there is no state money available for special buses. Parents have asked for a pedestrian overpass spanning Ulmerton at 119th Street and have been told the Florida Department of Transportation would not fund it. When government wants to act in such situations, it finds a way. Recent history offers examples.
In the late 1990s, the school district built McMullen-Booth Elementary School on the west side of six-lane McMullen-Booth Road and assigned children who lived on the east side of the road to the school. Because the school was not close to any signaled intersection, parents lobbied for a traffic light so their children could more safely cross the road. Traffic engineers said a light wasn't warranted. Parents asked for a school bus. The school district said no.
The parents refused to give up the fight, and as a result, a school transportation safety task force was formed in 1999 to consider the McMullen-Booth situation and other safety problems around schools and report to the county Metropolitan Planning Organization. Elected officials and prominent community leaders were on the task force. They contended that common sense, rather than just rules and process, ought to be part of the equation when considering safety issues at schools. Lo and behold, a traffic light appeared.
Another example: After Palm Harbor University High School was built, school administrators said the intersection of County Road 1 and Delaware Avenue needed a traffic light instead of just a stop sign. But for years heavy after-school traffic and numerous accidents didn't convince traffic engineers that a light was warranted. A couple of important Pinellas County officials disagreed, and a traffic light soon appeared.
Here's yet another example: In 2000 the state completed and opened a $500,000 pedestrian overpass spanning Curlew Road near Landmark Drive. The overpass was built so Curlew Creek Elementary School students could safely cross the road after it was widened to six lanes. In fact, parents demanded that the overpass be included in the widening project. And before the overpass was completed, the school district provided school buses to ferry students back and forth.
Where government has the will, it finds a way. Why, in the case of Ridgecrest Elementary School students, does it lack the will? Where is the MPO's school safety task force now? Where is the County Commission? Why aren't School Board members acting? Why hasn't anyone demanded that a pedestrian overpass for Ridgecrest Elementary be included in any Ulmerton widening project?
If nothing is done now, there will be a tragedy one day where students cross Ulmerton Road. Then, government will spring into action. But it will be too late.
