By: Scott Brinton
On the evening of March 16, Linda and John Taft of North Merrick were entertaining their grown daughter and granddaughter at their Meadowbrook Road home, when suddenly they heard the crack of two cars colliding across the street.
It was a familiar sound for the Tafts. There have been many accidents and near misses outside their home during the more than 13 years they've lived there, the couple say. At least two to three a month, according to Linda Taft.
This accident, however, hit home for the Tafts -- literally.
A father with a mini-van full of six children, ages 5 to about 10, pulled out of the Brookside School parking lot, said Linda Taft, a New York City teacher. The children were coming from a program at the school. A Pontiac Grand Am headed southbound on Meadowbrook Road couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting the van.
The Pontiac sideswiped the van's front, which sent the car straight into the Tafts' front yard. The Pontiac smashed into the Acura belonging to the Tafts' daughter. The Acura struck John Taft's van, which is specially equipped to carry his wheelchair. (He was disabled during combat in Vietnam.) The van landed on the Tafts' front lawn after taking out their Belgium-block curb.
The incident got Linda Taft angry enough to speak out during last week's Central School District board meeting, which convened as it does every month at Brookside School.
"Thank the Lord that no one was injured that night. It was a horrendous thing," Taft told the Central Board of Education. "I'm prevailing on you, I am begging you, I am asking you [to act]."
Taft is calling on the Central School District to address traffic concerns around Brookside School, which houses the district's administration offices, as well as centers for seniors and day care.
Specifically, she wants a stop sign installed on Meadowbrook Road before Brookside's north entrance. That would slow traffic coming over the bridge above the Southern State Parkway. The speed limit through the area is 25 mph, but motorists rarely adhere to that regulation, Taft said. Often, they zip through at 40-50 mph, she said.
Those are particularly dangerous speeds, Taft said, because motorists have a hard time seeing the north entrance to Brookside School as they come off the bridge.
Adding to the problem, there are no signs on the bridge warning of an approaching school. Technically, Brookside is not a school, as it doesn't house students full time; however, children from throughout Bellmore-Merrick often attend programs there.
Taft would also like Brookside's north entrance closed to outgoing traffic, to avoid accidents such as that of March 16. The southern entrance would be safer for outgoing vehicles, because motorists coming off the bridge have more time -- and thus a better chance -- to see them, she said.
"This is a real hazard, this place here, especially since it's a school. It just amazes me that they never did anything about it before," Taft said during an interview on her front porch, as cars sped up and down Meadowbrook Road behind her.
The superintendent of the Central district said that because Meadowbrook Road is maintained by the Town of Hempstead, it is up to the town to install traffic signs. He also said at the board meeting that the traffic problem was news to him.
"I'm not familiar with these kinds of problems," Superintendent Thomas Caramore said. "I'm aware of an occasional accident."
Michael McConnell, town spokesman, said residents requesting stop signs must begin by writing to the Hempstead Board. If the board determined a traffic hazard might exist, it would then forward a letter to the Traffic Control Division, which would survey vehicle patterns before installing any sign.
The Central School Board acknowledged that a traffic problem exists and agreed to contact Hempstead Town and police to see what can be done to stem accidents outside Brookside.
"That hill is really a very tough hill, because people can't see what's over it," said Trustee Sherry Skolnik.
Taft said that what affected her most about the March 16 accident was seeing the children from the van, standing on her lawn, trembling and crying with bewilderment and fear. "When I saw those children that almost got hurt, I said this has to stop."
