Mt. Pleasant to Crack Down on Columbus Avenue Speeding
Days after a Yorktown woman was killed crossing Columbus Avenue in Valhalla, the Mount Pleasant Town Board and Police Chief Paul Oliva pledged to try and slow down speeding motorists on the road.
Three residents at the Sept. 15 town board work session demanded that steps be taken to curtail speeding, which they said has been a longtime problem on Columbus Avenue, a county road.
Yorktown resident Britany Mastropolo was struck by a car while attempting to cross the southbound lanes of Columbus Avenue near Pat’s Deli on Sept. 11, Oliva said. The driver stopped at the scene of the accident.
Mastropolo, who worked at the Easter Seal Project Explore school at 70 Columbus Ave., was transported to Westchester Medical Center and died the next day, Oliva said.
Oliva said the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and Mount Pleasant police are still investigating the accident.
“It appears at this time speed was not a factor,” he said. “But we’re waiting for the results of the county police investigation.”
Despite the possibility that speed did not play a role in the accident, three town residents, Deborah Torres, Manika Link-Phillips and John Crupi, told officials speeding has been a problem for years on Columbus Avenue and is a particular danger to students from area schools.
The area between Locust Street and Cambridge Street, near where the recent fatality took place, is the most troublesome stretch, they said.
Torres said it is common for students to walk to Pat’s Deli after school. Drivers often travel at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour, the posted speed limit, posing a danger to pedestrians. Speeding is also a threat elsewhere on the road, especially for students who are driven to school by parents in the morning but who walk home in the afternoon.
Crupi said it is common for drivers to drive as fast as 50 miles per hour on portions of Columbus Avenue.
Another problem is the failure of some motorists to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, Torres said.
“I don’t have the answers,” Torres said. “There’s no consequence for speeding.”
Councilman Denis McCarthy said the town board agreed that pedestrian safety issues must be addressed for Columbus Avenue.
Flashing lights for school zones should be installed on the road to indicate how fast a vehicle is traveling in the area, Councilman Nicholas DiPaolo suggested.
Oliva said the town has lighted road message boards, which could be used to alert drivers to slow down and obey the speed limit. The town must increase efforts to slow drivers down, he said.
While there has been anecdotal evidence of widespread speeding on Columbus Avenue, it hasn’t been a particularly dangerous site. Oliva said a boy was clipped by a truck mirror while walking in the road about four years ago, but it was a low visibility part of the street and the driver did nothing improper. About 20 years ago, a boy was hit running after a ball that had gone into the street, but he was not seriously injured.
Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said he would speak with the county to seek ways to reduce speeding on the road.
While Oliva agreed with the residents that steps must be made to assure drivers would not speed in the area, students also needed to cross the road safely by being aware of the traffic. Many young pedestrians are preoccupied with smart phones or wear headphones and are unaware of traffic, he said.
Oliva said prior to the start of each school year, “School’s Open” signs are placed on Columbus Avenue and officers with radar guns have an increased presence in the opening weeks of the new year.
Town officials agreed to have additional police patrols on Columbus Avenue to write tickets to curtail speeding drivers. Fulgenzi said DARE or youth officers would go to the schools located on the road to inform students of the importance of walking safely.
