Hillsborough County is making changes to several busy intersections near Farnell Middle School to make it easier for students to cross the road.
At the start of the school year, News Channel 8 received several complaints from parents who were concerned about pedestrian safety near the school’s crosswalks. They came to us again after a student’s bike was hit by a car on one of the crosswalks.
After our report on the school’s crosswalk problems aired, the county agreed to make the following changes:
“They are putting a five-second delay with the lights with the pedestrian walking. So, normally we have a red light and a green light that start and stop at the same time, now as soon as a pedestrian uses that crosswalk there is going to be a five second delay,” said parent Lauren Hawkins.
Hawkins claimed the county’s attitude on the issue changed after a series of news reports highlighted the issue.
“I asked him what changed. You know, there’s been some requests in months prior with not the same results and he said to me, ‘Well, this came to be two days ago,'” Hawkins said.
The county is expected to ban right turns at some stops at certain times before and after school hours, making it safer for students crossing the road.
“Things are changing and we are grateful and I’m extremely proud of our West Chase community for getting around this and believing that one by one that we can make an impact and we did it within a week,” said Hawkins.
