By GRANT R. MADSEN
Kristina Hambleton, a 7-year-old resident of Wymount Terrace, was riding her bicycle last week to the nearby dairy lab in the Wymount Terrace Housing Office to spend some of her money on candy. She stopped when she got to the road and looked both ways. When the coast was clear, she began to cross.
Kim Hambleton, the girl’s mother, said she and a friend watched from the porch as a car appeared out of nowhere, barely missing her daughter. She said the car stopped momentarily, the driver looked out the back window and drove off.
“It scared me to death,” Hambleton said. “Kristina was terrified. She was crying and shaking. She ran into her room and didn’t want to come out. She told me she didn’t want to ride her bike anymore.”
Hambleton said her daughter has not been on it since.
Hambleton said other parents are concerned about their children’s safety. “It’s a big concern because this road is on a hill. It doesn’t take much for people to get going too fast,” she said.
Adele Rosenauer, a BYU student and mother of two, said she witnessed the near-accident and said she thinks the hill is a big part of the problem. “If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to break the speed limit. You have to make a real effort to slow down.”
Hambleton said she is also worried because she fears that the current construction of the new health center across the street from Wymount Terrace will increase the flow of traffic. She said something has got to be done.
Both mothers met with Lt. Steve Baker, a BYU traffic officer, to discuss ways to make the street safer for children and residents.
Baker said he would immediately focus on educating residents about the road’s potential dangers, consider adjusting the position and number of speed limit signs and investigate what other communities are doing to slow drivers down.
Rosenauer said the officer explained to her that sometimes if the statistics are not right, the traffic office will not make permanent changes like crosswalks or stoplights.
“It’s like, if not enough people are injured or killed they won’t do anything,” Rosenauer said. “He was a very nice officer, but I just didn’t feel like there was anything concrete that he said they could do.”
Baker said he has to look at many different options before deciding to install a crosswalk or stoplight. He also said traffic engineers have told him crosswalks can give a false sense of security and actually result in more accidents.
“You end up doing more harm than good if you create a false sense of security,” he said.
“If the number of actual incidents show there isn’t a problem, it wouldn’t make sense to take action,” he said. “If it’s appropriate to put a crosswalk in, that’s what we’ll do. If it’s an expensive option, that’s fine.”
Hambleton said she feels like Wymount residents could take it upon themselves to be more conscious of the speed limit.
“People are five minutes late to class and so they go 40 miles an hour down the road. If you’re late, you’re late. Speeding isn’t going to make any difference,” she said.
Hambleton did not want people to misunderstand her or be upset with what she was trying to do. “I’m not trying to make any trouble, I’m only trying to make it safer for my kids,” she said.
“I have a plan of action. I’m doing everything that I can do without going through the committee first, right now. I will look at all the options and decide the best things to do,” said Baker, who said he has to go through a committee before expensive decisions can be approved.
