Trees Cut at 'Dangerous' Junior School Crosswalk

A regional maintenance crew has trimmed trees at a Main Street crosswalk in front of where students have been hit by cars in previous years to increase the visibility of signs there, and the state Department of Transportation conducted a field investigation to determine if any other safety upgrades are called for, a DOT spokesman said last week.

The state was reviewing the results of the study, spokesman Tim Greeley said.

"We had a regional maintenance crew out to cut back some trees and overgrown vegetation along that stretch of the highway in the last week of July," Greeley said. "Around the same time we conducted a field investigation aimed at determining whether any safety upgrades were warranted, and feasible, at the location. Those findings are under review at this time."

In July, Madison's governing body and said it hoped the department would respond "exepeditiously" to the request.

The recommendations include a request to have a portable "Stop For Pedestrians" sign on Main Street. Having the trees trimmed was one of the recommendations submitted to the state.

Council President Jeannie Tsukamoto said the Main Street crosswalk in front of the junior school is "a real traffic hazard" and a similar request made to the department last June never got a response.

Councilman Robert Landrigan, a member of the Madison Volunteer Ambulance Corps, said he has transported students who were hit by cars there to the hospital.

"I would support this a hundred and fifty percent for the simple reason that I've had to take some of the students that were struck by cars at that intersection to the hospital," he said. "It's a very dangerous spot in town."

Main Street is a state road, also known as New Jersey Route 124.

Mayor Bob Conley said the suggestions are what Madison would do if it was a municipal road, and said Madison once put up a pedestrian crossing sign on its own, but the Department of Transportation called to have it removed.