By JOSEPH KELLARD
The law will permit traffic to travel only southbound on the section of Marlborough between Oceanside Pkwy. and Brower Ave. (across from Oceanside High School).
While residents of Marlborough say the street has long been plagued by reckless drivers, an accident that occurred in May was the final straw. On a rainy day, an Oceanside High School student drove recklessly and flipped his jeep across two properties and caused damages. This incident spurred the residents to attend the a town hall meeting later that month, held by Town Councilman Anthony Santino, to offer their concerns about traffic on their block.
They told the councilman about the motorists who speed there daily and about other incidents through the years, from side-view mirrors and doors being sideswiped to a child who was hit and hospitalized. Their main concern was that inevitably someone someday would be killed by an dangerous motorist.
"At the town meeting the residents from Marlborough Rd. made a very convincing case that the street is very narrow, so that if two cars are coming in opposing directions it is impossible to get through, and it was being used as a cut through by a lot of people, particularly from the school, and that it was very hazardous," Santino told the Herald.
The residents presented Santino with photos of accidents on the street, and they asked that the Town to consider making it a one-way. Prior to the car that overturned in May, the next most damaging accident occurred four years ago, when a motorist driving northbound crashed into an electrical pole that triggered a blackout on Marlborough.
While motorists speed on Marlborough driving in both directions, the residents generally agreed that most of the speeders are students from OHS, who drive northbound on Skillman Ave. (in front of the high school) which leads straight into Marlborough Rd. The southbound one-way would at least eliminate these motorists coming from one direction and reduce traffic along the street.
"We are just trying to make this a safer block for our kids, our neighbors and the high school kids who walked down our block," said Gail Umansky, who spearheaded the efforts to make Marlborough a one-way and whose car and patio were damaged by the teen driver last May.
Diana DePasquale, a 40-year resident of Marlborough, also suffered property damage in that accident. "If I were out there working on my front yard I could of been killed that day. He went on to my property and slid over to my neighbors."
After hearing the residents' request for a one-way, Santino sent engineers to perform a traffic survey of the area on and around Marlborough.
Among the matters the Town engineers and Santino's assistant, Linda Reed, took into account in making Marlborough a one-way was the Oceanside Fire Department. Salamander Firehouse on Foxhurst Rd. uses the street as a conduit while on their way to fire calls on the south side of town.
"That was a big thing about which way they were going to make the one way, southbound or northbound," Umansky said.
As another means of making their street safer, Vanderhoof had the Town post a 15 mile-an-hour sign at the start of their block heading southbound from Oceanside Pkwy. But there is also a 30 mile-an-hour sign at the northbound entrance of the street, which will become useless once the street becomes a one-way.
"This time the Town had to listen to us," Vanderhoof said in regard to the accident in May. "They realized that families can never play out front and that's not fair."
