Dallas Parents Say Without School Zone Signs, It's Only a Matter of Time Before a Child Gets Hurt

Dallas parents are demanding answers about why a new Dallas ISD elementary school along a busy neighborhood road has no school zone signs or flashing lights.

"It's only a matter of time. It's not a question of if, it's when. Someone is going to get hurt," said parent Ande McNamara.

McNamara's daughter is a second grader at the new Solar Preparatory School for Girls on Henderson Avenue, in the ever-growing Knox/Henderson neighborhood.

After sitting vacant for years, the old building has once again been re-dedicated as a girls-only prep school, bringing in students from around the city.

But a week into class, many parents like McNamara have noticed something is missing-- school zone signs, crossing guards and flashing lights.

McNamara says drivers are getting angry and aggressive, and she's convinced students’ lives are on the line.

"It seemed like the neighborhood wasn't aware of what's going on, that there's now a functioning school here again," she said. "That building had been empty for a couple years now, and since then, a lot of new apartments and development have popped up around it. And suddenly there's an extra couple hundred cars around every afternoon. And everyone is real frustrated, and laying on the horns, and swooping around, driving extra fast to get around the congestion."

Dallas traffic engineers told NBC 5 it doesn't appear Dallas ISD administrators requested a traffic study over the summer, nor did they bring in their own engineers or consultants to study congestion problems.

A Dallas ISD spokesman said re-purposing the building into a school-of-choice that serves families around the city meant it was more difficult to predict for traffic issues.

City of Dallas engineers say they're tackling the problem, but a fix is still weeks away.

Auro Majumdar, an engineering supervisor with the city of Dallas, said that traffic engineers are trying to schedule a traffic-impact study.

The study takes a week; and then it could take a month longer to order and install signs, electronic flashers and new crosswalks, he said.

"If it's designated as a school zone, then from today the whole process could be maybe six weeks," Majumdar said.

A school crossing zone costs about $25,000. The school flashers cost about $16,000. The remaining $9,000 is for school zone signs, reduced speed limit signs, additional crosswalk signs and paint.

Majumdar said two formal requests for traffic impact studies have been made to the city of Dallas this week through 311.

Councilman Philip Kingston has also contacted Traffic Engineers asking about installing flashing signs, citing complaints his office has received.

There is currently an eight week backlog for traffic impact studies, Majumdar said, but when the request concerns school safety, it's bumped up the list to a higher priority.

McNamara said there's no time to wait to install better signs outside the school.

"It’s very frustrating. I’d hate to see one of the girls get hurt. It just seems like it’s a matter of time. Someone needs to sign their name and get the ball moving," she said. "I think it's very dangerous."

The situation outside Solar Prep is in stark contrast to Robert E. Lee Elementary School just a few blocks away.

That school has several school zone signs and big crosswalks. There are clear warning signs informing drivers about the lowered speed limit.

There are also multiple sets of flashing lights lining the neighborhood streets.

Solar Prep mom Carolina Tremblay said they need that level of protection at her daughter's school, too.

"It's totally not safe," Tremblay said, holding her daughter's hand as she crossed the street. "This is a DISD school. There should be money funded for this. Parents should feel safe walking our kids to school and crossing the street."

On Wednesday afternoon, more than 100 cars lined up along one lane of Henderson Avenue at about 4 p.m. Regular traffic drove past on the other lane. This made it very difficult for parents and kids to see clearly the flow of traffic as the stepped off the curb and onto the roadway, since their line of sight was obscured by the lane of stopped cars.

In a statement, a Dallas ISD spokesperson said district administrators are now working closely with the city to install school zone signs. But he gave no answers about why signs or flashers weren't planned for before classes began.

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