New effort to stop drivers from speeding to school

NORTH CANAAN — A potentially dangerous situation on Railroad Street/Route 7 is getting renewed attention with the start of the school year — and the ticketing of five people last week.The mother of a student at North Canaan Elementary School was charged with failure to obey a traffic signal Sept. 26 after she nearly collided with a crossing guard and student in the crosswalk at Railroad, Bragg and Orchard streets.Resident State Trooper David Collins issued the $117 ticket. The woman was driving north on Railroad Street, and told police that crossing guard Don Caranci was not holding the sign high enough in the air.Caranci said he was holding the sign up, and a stopped truck driver blew his horn at the woman to alert her, but she waved hello to Caranci and continued on her way to the school.Collins said it doesn’t even matter if the crossing guard had a sign or not. The law requires drivers to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk. Collins, who is on temporary assignment here (see story above), said he is not out to issue lots of tickets, especially given the economy. He would rather make the public more aware of the traffic problems by issuing warnings; he only plans to ticket those who don’t get the message. It is also becoming obvious to him that the problem is just as much local people as it is people passing through town on state roads.The morning after the incident, he came out to Railroad Street at about 9 a.m., and quickly needed to pull over four cars, all driven by local people, for speeding.“There are a lot of things going on out there. It’s a pretty scary situation,” Collins said. “I’m not giving out tickets for people going a few miles over the speed limit. I’m talking about 10 miles or more over it, and those drivers are not hard to find.”He is very concerned about the traffic issues here and in other parts of town — including the area around the school.Many of the same issues Caranci sees were also happening on Main Street, where the decision was made to discontinue a controlled crosswalk. All students in the center of town were assigned to and encouraged to ride a school bus. Caranci was reassigned to the crosswalk between the school and the Town Hall parking lot, where he said he has documented hundreds of traffic violations per month. The selectmen addressed the issue by moving the Town Hall entrance, to eliminate the four-way intersection, and by posting new signs to make it clear that Pease Street is one-way during school arrival and dismissal times. That designation continues to be ignored by some parents and school staff.One of the biggest issues Caranci has observed everywhere is people using cell phones while driving; most, he said, are usually also speeding at the same time.When another crossing guard went on disability last spring, Caranci was moved to the Railroad Street post. The crosswalk by the school was left unguarded.Collins plans to work with the school board and administration in an effort to stop the violations at the school. That includes a chronic problem of drivers parking in fire lanes. The bus circle and most of Pease Street are designated fire lanes. Yet, during the school day and any event taking place there, including school board meetings, the fire lanes will fill up with cars, even as a parking lot directly across from the main entrance remains mostly empty.