Pol Calls For Conduit Ave. Safeguards
A south Queens lawmaker has sent a letter to the city Department of Transportation (DOT) urging the agency to immediately extend fencing along North and South Conduit avenues where gaps exist that students from a Lindenwood school use as a shortcut home, it was announced on Monday, Nov. 24.
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder said in a statement that the situation near M.S. 202, the Robert H. Goddard School in South Ozone Park, is an accident waiting to happen.
He wants the DOT to block the gaps used by schoolchildren to prevent students from crossing the busy, high-traffic avenues, he stated.
“By leaving these fences in disrepair and filled with gaps, we are encouraging our children to take a dangerous path across this busy highway and risk injury or even death,” Goldfeder said. “I urge the NYC Department of Transportation to immediately extend these fences and close the gaps before someone gets hurt.”
Parents and teachers at the school have seen the students taking the dangerous route home, and are concerned for their safety, he noted
“We’ve had to keep our fingers crossed that none of the children end up in the hospital,” Gaytrye Persaud, M.S. 202 PTA president and parent said. “As a teacher and a parent, it’s very important to me that the city step in and fix this problem. There’s a bridge there for crossing and the children should be encouraged to use it.”
Breaks in the fencing and a current gap in the fence under the pedestrian bridge at Arion Street allows students from the school to cross North Conduit, according to Goldfeder. They then pass over the median and Cross South Conduit, he noted.
Community leaders, parents, teachers and Goldfeder call the issue a major concern, he noted in the release.
“Local parents should not have to worry about their child’s safety coming home from school every day,” added Goldfeder. “Fixing these fences will put parents’ minds at ease and make our families that much safer.”
