Get Answers: Missing safety lights

Posted at: 10/26/2009 10:04 PM | Updated at: 10/27/2009 7:37 AM
By: Joe Vigil, Eyewitness New 4; Matthew Kappus, KOB.com

Sueysen Mayoral

The flashing yellow safety lights near an East Mountains elementary school were recently taken down. After a viewer asked us why, Eyewitness News 4 went to the the Department of Transportation for answers.

The lights were removed after crews completed road work near North 14 in the East Mountains. Crews widened lanes and shoulders and added a center lane to keep traffic flowing as buses turn into San Antonito Elementary.

But the parent who contacted us says those lights helped slow down speeders near the school.

"I guess they forgot to put the flashing light back on. I don't know," said parent Sueysen Mayoral. Mayoral thinks the lights kept drivers from putting the pedal to the metal.

"A couple times already, I almost got hit because I was pulling out of the school and someone was coming way too fast and they had to push on their breaks," she said.

The speed limit is 20 miles-per-hour when kids are around. But we clocked some people speeding through at 29-miles-per hour.

DOT officials say the flashing yellow lights were for a crosswalk. But since the crosswalk wasn't being used, they took the lights and the crosswalk out.

So the lights aren't coming back. But crews showed us the portable strips they will lay on the road to slow drivers down.

The DOT said if people are speeding outside the school zone, that is a law enforcement issue.

If you have a question and can't get answers, contact KOB.

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