Bells are safety hazard not a help

Residents of St. Albans are tolling the bells for the traffic obstructions in their community.
Bell bollards located on the median at the intersection of Francis Lewis Boulevard and 115th Avenue have reportedly caused numerous car accidents, several of which required the hospitalization of passengers.
“These bells are causing a tremendous problem,” said Lenny Smith, who drives past the intersection each day. “It is a major safety issue. There have been at least 10 accidents because of them. Just about everybody that hits one winds up in the hospital. They thought it would protect people who are crossing the street, but if people are crossing and a car hits the bell everyone in that intersection is going to be whipped out.”
Smith, who has seen cars flipped over at the intersection, believes the bells are not only a threat to public safety, but they are also detrimental to overall traffic conditions.
“They stick out into the intersection seven to eight feet on each side,” Smith said. “Making left turns onto Francis Lewis from either side is a major problem. You have to go deeper into the intersection now. You are interfering with the right of way of the other cars and causing more traffic.”
Councilmember Leroy Comrie, who represents the 27th District, urged the city to remedy the hazardous situation.
“I don’t understand why this installation was done so poorly and painted black so you couldn’t see it at night,” said Comrie. “We saw that there were many cars that hit it, so clearly it is a problem. The whole idea is to avoid accidents, not cause accidents. The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) didn’t talk to the community or the Department of Transportation (DOT). It was the poorest of all the installations we’ve observed.”
The DDC responded by fulfilling the councilmember’s wish. The obtrusive traffic obstacles were painted white on top and had reflectors placed next to them on August 24.
“The DDC recently installed the bell bollards on Francis Lewis Boulevard and 115th Avenue as part of the DOT’s School Safety Improvement Project,” said DDC spokesman Craig Chin. “To make the bollards more visible to drivers the tops of the bollards have been painted white and the DOT also installed Tubular markers.”
According to Chin, bollards are installed in order to protect pedestrians waiting on the median from oncoming vehicle traffic.
While Comrie believes the bollards can still be improved, Smith has already noticed a drastic improvement in overall traffic conditions in the short time since the updates were completed.
“I think there is definitely more visibility now,” said Smith. “Before you couldn’t see it until you were on top of it, but now you can see it. It seems to be working, because since the changes, no one has hit a bell.”