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Staff member at Roslindale school hit by driver while helping students cross Cummins Highway
By adamg on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 9:07pm
A Sumner School staff member suffered minor injuries this afternoon while helping students cross Cummins Highway in Roslindale Square near the former Washington Irving Middle School that is now the Sumner's upper school, according to e-mail sent to parents by school Principal Meghan Welch.
Her note was forwarded to Universal Hub by one of those parents, who expressed frustration, because parents have been complaining since older Sumner students have had to walk the several blocks between the two buildings each day:
Parents at the school have been advocating to 311, BTD, and local officials for safety improvements on streets surrounding the school where students cross, especially on Cummins Highway because 5th and 6th graders are attending school at the "upper campus" (the old Washington Irving building) and must cross Cummins Highway at least twice a day to and from the "lower school" on Basile Street.
The parent adds:
If the Green New Deal renovation of the old Washington Irving building goes as planned, Sumner will merge with Philbrick and all students will attend school at the old Washington Irving building on Cummins at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. At that point, students as young as 4 years old will be navigating across Cummins Highway to get to school.
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Comments
That’s a proactive parent.
I hope the staff person recovers soon.
Will anything be done?
They should put in traffic lights
Oh, wait, they did, years ago. First, in the 1990s, at the intersection of Cummins and Sycamore, which is 3 doors down from the entrance to the then Washington Irving. Less than 5 years ago, they added another signal at the intersection of Cummins and Florence. Both of these are on the route between the Irving and the Sumner and can have a pedestrian crossing light as part of the cycle.
I grew up on the Sumner side of Cummins and now live on the Irving side. When school's out, I cut through the school yard walking between the two. As a 5 or so year old, I got into trouble, along with some slightly older kids, for crossing Cummins without parental supervision to see a dumpster fire at the Irving. For decades kids have been crossing that street before and after school. Wu's kids cross getting to the lower school every day. We're not reinventing the wheel here.
I feel bad for the staff member who got struck by the car, but dealing with kids crossing Cummins has been an issue for decades. This may be a new thing for the Sumner administrators to deal with, but the crossing lights are probably the best thing to use. Come 2025, the parents should also use them bring their kids to and from the school.
Huh?
I’m having trouble figuring out what your point is. You get that this area is dangerous, it’s not a new problem and the existing solutions don’t protect pedestrians. So… ?
(Btw I’m not there as often as you, but it is a really risky area! Traffic’s accelerating eastbound from the square, coming downhill through the S turn westbound. 35 MPH is common. Plus lots of cars turning on and off side streets and driveways. And BPD certainly doesn’t enforce traffic rules there or anywhere else. It’s the kind of place you look both ways twice.)
Traffic Enforcement isn't happening in Boston
One common trend I see constantly around Boston that isn't making the streets safer is BPD isn't enforcing existing traffic laws , drivers have gotten used to going fast, running red lights and other violations. If we could simply put cameras at intersections like other states do that result in tickets for those drivers who are running red lights that would likely help a little to reduce traffic issues as well as making money for the city....but sadly Boston can't do some of the simple things :(
Can’t or won’t?
If cops won’t do their jobs and there aren’t even enough of them to do that part of their job, then replace them with cameras.
Make it legal to do so
Somerville found the camera loophole
Instead of automatically issuing tickets, have a human review video footage and issue the ticket themselves.
Somerville is brilliant!
So that’s how they did it.
My point
The site has been a school for decades, and people have successfully crossed Cummins Highway for even longer. What happened is bad, but not common by a long shot. Heck, they've even added signalized crossings over the years as part of signalizing intersections. As far as student access goes, things will be fine when the Sumner is fully at the Irving site.
Texting, monster trucks, SUVs …
… police refusal to enforce traffic safety have not been going on for decades.
But more traffic casualties may be what you consider to be fine. Never clear with you.
So how many people have to be killed or injured
before its a problem?
Just curious where your cutoff is before we're allowed to take action to prevent further harm from being done.
Decades
Will you admit that it's possible that things have changed over the course of those decades? Things like the number of vehicles on the road, the type of vehicles on the road, the type of vehicles parked (it's a lot harder for a pedestrian to see and be seen behind a Stupid User Vehicle when trying to cross the street), other impediments to visibility, the number and types of distractions affecting both drivers and pedestrians, speed and (lack of) enforcement, etc.?
What has changed
Has changed everywhere.
But again, over the past decades, the city has made efforts to make it easier to cross Cummins Highway if one is going between the Sumner and the Irving.
What makes you think they weren't using the light?
I'm not seeing that anywhere in the description here. Crossing lights are useful, sure, but they're not forcefields!
What's the where now?
I guess I haven't been paying attention to this. It seems a bit confusing.
I gather that the plan is to close both the Sumner and Philbrick buildings and merge the schools and put them into a renovated Washington Irving. That school will then no longer be (or already no longer is) a middle school. Which is part of BPS's decision to eliminate all the middle schools.
And the temporary status is that there are kids all over among the three buildings (Sumner, Philbrick, Irving) but who are all conceptually attending the same school. That does sound like a bit of a mess. I can see why that's confusing if kids are bused to or dropped off at one school and some of then then have to walk over to the other.
But once all the kids are at Irving why is the idea that 4 year olds are attending on that campus at all relevant? Some four year-olds live on one side of Cummins and some on the other, surely, so why would more four year-olds have to cross Cummins because they're at the Irving rather than the Sumner (or Philbrick)?
Why is this a "Green New Deal?" And is BPS going to sell the Sumner and Philbrick properties?
Here's what's up
A few years back, they closed the Irving as part of doing away with middle schools. The idea was that kids would K-6 at one school, then head to a high school. The thing was that the Sumner (and I think the Philbrick) only go to grade 5, so there was no place for them to go after 5. The solution was to have Sumner "upper school" or whatever at the old Irving site. This is where I note that the Mayor's kids were going to the Sumner- I guess they still do- when the announcement was made, so yes, the BPS will inconvenience even the Mayor's family with their "great ideas."
The newer idea is to merge the Philbrick and the Sumner at the Irving site, and probably sell the other schools. They are doing a similar thing with the schools by Morton Street and Norfolk Avenue.
Thanks for the clarification
The plan makes more sense than the assertion that "At that point, students as young as 4 years old will be navigating across Cummins Highway to get to school."
Once the Sumner building is shuttered and sold off (presumably for affordable housing development), there won't be any reason for the kids at the SumBrickVing to cross Cummins to go there. That huge building even has a driveway loop in front so buses won't drop off kids in the street.
BPS has to close schools, there's no way around it. Enrollment continues to fall, and excess capacity wastes money. It is a bit crazy to thing there's only going to be one school where there used to be three, but roll back farther and there were far more.
A traffic based bank machine at Washington & Williams Sts in JP
There is a bank for the city from people who run yellow and red lights at this intersection. Every day. Centre Street in JP would bring in so much cash it would make even the would be Dictator blush.
The question is why doesn't BPD do any traffic enforcement? The money that could rake in would easily pay for the inevitable overtime.
You are asking the BPF to do actual work.
That is simply not in their job interpretation.
They are purely ceremonial as far as many crimes go. Best you can ask for is a presence at a neighborhood meeting so it appears they have ears.
With few individual exceptions, a more bitter group of civil servants would be hard to find.