Parents Call For Traffic Controls Near Williamsburg Park

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some Williamsburg parents are demanding that something be done about a dangerous street crossing that they say is putting the lives of hundreds of children who use a Brooklyn park in jeopardy.

As CBS 2's Tracee Carrasco reported, the speed limit along Kent Avenue is 30 miles per hour, but cars are seen going much faster. There is nothing to slow them down, and parents say the situation is an accident waiting to happen.

Nine-year-old Elizabeth Demar Crandall said she was on her way to soccer practice last year at Bushwick Inlet Park when, "I was walking across and I saw a bicycle, and a couple of seconds later, I was on the ground."

Elizabeth broke her wrist when the bicyclist crashed into her. Accidents like hers are the reason many parents say they don't only worry about dangers in the park, but also about trying to cross Kent Avenue to get there.

"We don't have any crosswalks," said Jamie Zeppernick, a youth soccer coach at the park. "We don't have any speed humps. We don't have any traffic lights. We don't have any stop signs."

Parents and community leaders are asking the city's Department of Transportation to step in.

"We just want to know why there are no safety precautions for people accessing the park," Zeppernick said.

Last month, state Assemblyman Joseph Lentol wrote a letter to Joseph Palmieri, the Brooklyn commissioner for the Department of Transportation, requesting traffic controls on Kent Avenue near Bushwick Inlet Park and the adjacent East River State Park.

"I think they should slow down the speed right along this park just as though it were a school zone," Lentol told Carrasco.

A DOT spokesperson said the agency plans to reopen signal studies at the North Eight, North Ninth and North 10th street intersections near the parks. There's no timeline for when, if ever, changes would be made.

"Every day without a solution is a day too late," Zeppernick said.

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