Wave of pedestrian safety fears heightens
On Monday afternoon Police Commissioner William Connors, while driving his city-owned vehicle, struck a teenager attempting to cross Boston Post Road near Rye City Hall setting off the latest in a chain of safety mishaps. 

The police commissioner was headed south on Boston Post Road (BPR) just past the Library Lane traffic light when he hit a 14-year-old Resurrection School student at approximately 3:40 p.m., according to Rye police.

Lt. Joseph Verille said the commissioner called in the accident, which took place near the Milton Road crosswalk across from Lester’s Clothing Store. The boy, on foot with a friend, admitted to darting out into the street and not using the traffic signal button when trying to cross onto the west side of BPR, according to police on the scene. The friend tried to grab the boy and pull him back out of the roadway but was unable to. A crossing guard usually stationed near that location for morning and afternoon school dismissals had left the scene about 10 minutes prior to the accident, the lieutenant said.

That intersection, not previously tagged a danger point by city officials, is already slated for pedestrian upgrades via $185,000 in federal stimulus funding. The work is set to begin next month, according to Assistant City Manager Scott Pickup, and will include pedestrian phases, upgrades at the crosswalks and Library Lane traffic signals as well as the installation of ADA complaint ramps.

After the accident, the boy was transported to Greenwich Hospital by EMS with scrapes and bruises; police, who spoke with the boy’s mother the following morning, suspect he may have sustained broken bones in his foot.

The commissioner was also taken to the hospital in White Plains because of high blood pressure. Verille said the commissioner was released later that night and is “still shaken up” from the incident. The commissioner hasn’t released any statements to the media. 
On his car the passenger side mirror was broken and left dangling.

Rye Police called Westchester County in to independently investigate the accident and file a report since it involved a city car.

According to Kieran O’Leary, a public information officer for the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, initially it doesn’t seem speed played a factor. Witnesses told police that the commissioner’s car stopped almost immediately after striking the boy. Typically, when speed plays a role it takes a lot longer for a car to halt; O’Leary added that there were no visible tire marks to suggest skidding took place.

“We do have people telling us the car virtually stopped immediately,” he continued. “Witnesses didn’t feel the car was traveling at high rate of speed…[but] we’re going to dot all the I’s and cross the T’s.”

The report was expected within days; the county has 10 days to finalize it.

Mayor Douglas French (R) spoke with the teen’s mother as well as the police commissioner after the accident and reported that both are doing fine. “This is another traumatic event for all involved as well as for our city,” the mayor said in a released statement. “There are no simple answers and they are called accidents for a reason.” 

However French, who only took office last month, has his hands full; for the third time in less than a month a Rye child has been hit by a vehicle. On Jan. 7, Christofer Moreira, 10, was struck while attempting to cross Midland Avenue near the intersection of Palisade Road – the same location where 10-year-old Jarrid Amico was killed nearly four years prior. Then on Jan. 10, William Costine, 12, was hit while riding his bike along Milton Road. In both instances last month the boys sustained minor injuries.

In response, the city plans to re-dedicate itself to pedestrian safety, French said, beginning on Feb. 9 at the joint meeting of the Rye City Council and the Board of Education. Several city and school officials have already met over the matter. The goal of the meeting is to identify five to six key areas around town and walkthrough scenarios regarding pedestrian education, traffic enforcement and engineering solutions.

“The community has to be on board,” he said. “We want to require that everyone gets behind this.”

Inclusion of other local schools like Resurrection School and Rye Country Day School in the safety dialogue is expected going forward.

But the question, as a community, is what is it willing to tolerate? At times the community has been in favor of passive enforcement on certain areas according to the mayor. French stated, “We want to educate people and let them know that may change,” adding that he hopes to launch a community program armed with billboards, signage and email blasts. 

At some point expect the city to request more aggressive enforcement regarding text messaging, speeding and cell phone usage. “We’re not going to tolerate some of the behavior we’ve seen over last few years and that is going to include city employees as well,” French assured, also admitting that traffic enforcement numbers have shown a downward trend recently – something that has concerned some in the community. 

“There are different points of view around,” the mayor added. “If anything [this] starts the conversation there. Why is this happening?”